Lost and Found
by Edward the spiderqueen
Summary: Yoh's been on the run from the X-laws all his life. Hao's been having dreams for as long as he can remember about a boy who's face he never sees. What happens when they meet? sort of AU, yaoi, twincest, swearing, violence.
1. Default:Something Wicked This Way Comes

Disclaimer: I don't own Shaman King, if I did Hao would be shaman king and Yoh would be his queen.

Warnings: This is gonna be **yaoi** so if you don't like, get the hell out now. **Twincest, swearing, violence. **Any questions? Flames have the power to ruin my mood for a week and my friends say I'm pretty scary when I'm angry so just don't. If you don't like the pairing, why are you reading this?

A/N: I know I should be updating my other fics, but this one actually has an ending, not to mention an outline already written out, so updates should be kind of regular...hopefully. Enjoy the fic!

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Default chapter: Something Wicked This Way Comes 

He tried to slow his breathing; he knew if he wasn't perfectly quiet they would find him. He couldn't let that happen, mommy had told him to run to a place where they wouldn't find him. He hadn't wanted to but she'd sounded so scared.

From where he hid he could hear yelling. He resisted the urge to move from his spot to see what was going on.

A scream rang through the air, the sound making his hair stand on end. It wasn't his mothers voice, at least he didn't think it was.

He heard voices, they weren't his parents.

"Where is he?" someone asked harshly so close that Yoh had to clamp a hand over his mouth to keep from gasping. Someone replied to the voice, too far away for Yoh to make out what he was saying.

"Find him!" another voice said urgently. "We can't allow any of them to live." They moved away and everything was silent. After a time he made his way back to the camp his parents had made for the night. It was pitch black in the woods and silent as the grave. Shivering, he sniffed back tears.

He couldn't believe his eyes when he came upon what was left of their camp. Scorch marks covered most of the trees, nothing but cinders remained of the shelter his father had made for his mother and him to sleep in. But the sight that made his big eyes well up with tears was his parents broken and bloody bodies. Sobbing he ran to his mothers still form and buried his face in her ruined kimono top.

"Yoh, don't cry baby…"

Yoh looked up in surprise at his mother's voice; they were both standing right in front of him! But how could that be? He looked down at the figure he was still holding onto then back at the version before him. Without another thought he stood and ran into the outstretched arms of his mother. She had kneeled down and embraced her son while his father smiled down at them.

"It's okay, Yoh," his father said also kneeling down so he was eye level with his son. The two ghosts held their little boy for a few moments longer before his father cleared his throat and moved away. Yoh's mother also let go.

"Now Yoh, there's some things mommy and I need to tell you before we have to go."

"Go where?" he asked.

"Away," was all his mother said. She sat down on the ground and pulled Yoh into her lap. His father was looking for something it seemed. Yoh didn't really know what. He buried his face in the soft folds of his mothers dress and she stoked his hair murmuring softly to him.

"Yoh."

At his father's voice Yoh lifted his head to look at his father who was holding something. "This is yours now," he said handing Yoh a small box shaped locket. "Here." He took the chain and hooked it around the small boy's neck. Yoh looked at it curiously.

"What's in it?" he said noticing a lock on the outside of it. In vain he tried to pry it open but it wouldn't budge.

"There's some important numbers in it, along with a picture of our family, including your brother." Yoh looked up at his mother curiously at the last part.

"I have a brother?"

"Yes, his name is Hao, you're twins," his father said. "We had to send him away to protect you both."

Yoh was about to ask another question when he heard a strange noise like a bell. His mother stood up setting him down gently.

"It's time for us to go now sweetie," she said softly. Yoh looked up at both of them in alarm and hugged both their legs.

"No! I don't want you to!" he cried. They leaned down and hugged him again. Yoh realized that he could see right through them and they were fading.

"We love you honey," his mother said.

"Be brave son," his father added. Then they were gone and Yoh fell down on the ground wailing.

* * *

Yoh woke up with tears on his face. Wiping his eyes he sat up slowly and looked around his make shift camp. It was still dim, maybe an hour or so till dawn. Yoh debated going back to sleep but finally sighed and stood up stretching. 

"Amidamaru?" His soft question was directed at a memorial tablet set on the trunk of a fallen tree. No one answered and Yoh smiled softly, the spirit was probably…actually he didn't know what Amidamaru did inside that tablet. Did ghosts sleep? After pondering this for another minute Yoh decided to ask his spirit later and opted to go for a short walk in the woods.

It was peaceful underneath the trees. A few birds were singing and insects buzzed. It was a little early for anything else to be up. Yoh stretched as he made his way to a stream he'd found the night before. The water was clear and cold as he took a long drink from it using his hands as a cup. Next he splashed his face to wash it shivering slightly as the cold liquid dripped down his neck. He used the front of his shirt to dry his face with then stood up finished.

Something was wrong.

Yoh frowned trying to place what had caused his sudden feeling of unease then his eyes widened as he figured it out.

The entire forest had gone silent. Sensing the energy behind him Yoh turned around just in time to duck a swing from a glowing sword. It was close though. Time seemed to freeze as he drew his own katana and sliced at the body in front of him, the white trench coat was an easy target.

Blood spayed in a line down the woman's stomach as she let out a small 'oh' of surprise. She leaped back clutching her wound with one gloved hand. Yoh got into a defensive position looking around for any more threats. He sensed no one else though even when he spread his senses to the fullest, about a half a mile in all directions.

He had to pull his mind back however when the woman came at him again. Instead of blocking her attack with his sword Yoh dodged opting to leap into the branches of a nearby tree instead of hurting her again.

"I don't want to fight you," he said as she turned to look at him wildly.

"Silence demon spawn!" She pulled a revolver glowing green with furiyoku and shot at him wildly. He easily dodged her shots.

"You're bleeding, you need to get that wound looked at," he tried to reason with her. She wasn't listening. He leaped down to the ground still dodging the bullets. Running towards her he knocked the gun out of her hand and into the air. In a flash he'd sliced it in half. The woman watched as the two pieces landed on the forest floor.

"Why are you doing this?" he asked. "I don't even know you!"

"It is the X-laws sacred duty to route out evil and stop it before it spreads," she stated coldly launching at him again with her sword. She managed to get a blow in cutting Yoh's arm. He winced in pain and leaped backwards trying to get some distance between them. Suddenly she was behind him. Before he could react she sliced into his back. A searing pain lashed from his shoulder blade to his side. He dropped to the ground in agony. He heard footsteps in front of him and looked up at her. She was holding another glowing gun right in front of his forehead.

"This is for the best."

She cocked the gun. Something welled inside of Yoh, an anger that he didn't know he had. Maybe he'd just suppressed it for too long and it was finally coming to the surface. But he'd never felt this rage before, it was like it was someone else with him. He gripped his katana and without really looking thrust it through the woman's chest piercing her heart and killing her instantly. Gritting his teeth he wrenched it out of her. She slumped to the ground before him lifeless and lay face down on the earth. A large pool of blood soaked into the leaves and plants.

Yoh could only stare in horror at what he'd done. The large wound on his arm and back still hurt but he didn't really notice. All he could do was stare at the body in front of him. That's how Amidamaru found him nearly two hours later, covered in blood and gore holding his katana like it was an alien object.

"Master Yoh?" he asked tentatively ignoring the corpse but worried about Yoh. He'd seen many a dead bodies while he was alive; the blood of hundreds was on his hands. But Yoh had never killed anyone before, not ever. Even after the X-laws had been after them all this time he'd never had the heart to kill any of them.

Yoh looked at him, but he wasn't really looking at him more like through him. "Amidamaru…I k-killed…" Amidamaru went and put his ghostly arms around his young master trying to comfort him. Yoh buried his face in the samurai's chest and shook. He wasn't crying, not yet, he was still in shock.

"Come on," Amidamaru said, "Let's go. That wound on your back looks bad." He led Yoh back through the woods to their campsite.

* * *

"No!" Hao sat up in his bed and gasped in pain. His back and arm felt like they were on fire. Was it the dream? No dream he'd ever had before could cause pain like this. 

He brushed his long brown hair out of his eyes and sat still waiting for the pain to go away. It lessened to a bearable point after a few moments.

Knowing he wasn't going to get back to sleep despite the early hour, Hao got up from his bed and went to his open window. Painfully he stepped out onto the roof and looked out over the town to a nearby hill. He knew by now that what he'd seen had actually happened. A boy he didn't know (he always forgot what he looked like as soon as he awoke) had just killed a woman. It almost felt like he'd been right there with the other boy to deliver the killing blow. It had felt…good defeating the enemy.

Hao sat on the roof scanning the horizon. He shuddered in the cool morning air and looked out towards the forest covered hills. Now he could think of all the questions that plagued him about the boy. Who was he? What did he look like? Why did Hao have dreams about him every night? Why were the X-Laws after him? Round and round the questions swam. Hao's eyes unfocused with the intensity of his thoughts so he didn't notice when his spirit ally appeared at his side. A loud chirping noise broke him out of his contemplations.

"Spirit of fire!" he smiled at the toddler sized flame. It nuzzled his hand and he stroked the warm head absently.

The phantom pain in his back faded as the sun came up. But somewhere there was a boy who's pain hadn't faded, who was coming this way. And Hao knew trouble was following closely behind him.


	2. Ch1:Be Careful What You Wish For

Disclaimer: Don't own, but if I did Hao would be the shaman king and Yoh would be his love slave.

Warnings: eventual **yaoi** between Hao and Yoh so that means **twincest** not to mention **language **and some really minor **violence. **

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Chapter 1: Be Careful What You Wish For

Yoh Asakura looked down from his view point at the town below him. The brown eyed teen smiled as he gazed at it and the beautiful scenery surrounding it.

The town was bigger than it looked from what the map said, nestled as it was in a remote valley surrounded on all sides by a vast forest. To his left he could see a winding river just barely touching the side of the community. To his right, a small highway led out of the town, the only road connecting it to the outside world. All was peaceful in the valley; few people were outside at this hour of the morning. All in all, it looked alike a nice place to be.

'The perfect place to hide for awhile,' he thought to himself.

"It'll be nice to not have to run, at least for a time, right Amidamaru?"

The samurai spirit floating next to Yoh smiled at his master, and then frowned as a pained look crossed Yoh's face.

"Your wound?" he questioned worried. Yoh tried to smile but it came as more of a grimace. The pain passed and Yoh tried to reassure his companion.

"Its fine, it just stings sometimes," he said. The ghost looked doubtful and was going to say something but Yoh cut him off.

"Are we going or what?" The fourteen year old started down the nearly vertical path before them, an unhappy spirit trailing behind him.

Yoh ended up falling a few times, getting more dirt on his worn jeans and worrying his guardian. He kept laughing it off but Amidamaru wasn't fooled; Yoh needed help. But what could he do?

They made it to the bottom of the steep incline finally. There was about three yards of forest ahead of them that stopped abruptly and became someone's backyard.

"Let's camp by the river," said Yoh. Instead of going into town they stayed in the woods hidden and turned to where the river was. They came upon it in a few minutes and followed it downstream a ways. Amidamaru found a spot right by the river's edge and Yoh made camp. It didn't take long, all he had to do was dig a fire pit and make a stack of wood, set his backpack down and that was it.

"Want to go explore?" asked Yoh. Amidamaru smiled at his young master.

"Sure."

"Alright, let's go!" Before they went Yoh made sure to take his backpack. It held all his possessions which wasn't really a challenge. All Yoh had was a beat up wallet that contained the money he'd make at odd jobs, a pocket knife, a worn pair of sneakers, one change of clothes, and an old photograph. The only other thing Yoh owned was a locket that he never took off. (plus his katana which was always at his side)

The town was bigger than it looked. People were on their way to work. Yoh and Amidamaru wandered past the different stores of the downtown and passed the school. Yoh stopped after about fifteen minutes and had breakfast, courtesy of an apple tree growing in front of a small café, then continued on his way.

As they were walking down a random street trying to find the park he heard a voice shout from behind him. Curious he turned only to be tackled by someone. He landed on his back and cried out.

"Lord Yoh!" Amidamaru exclaimed but Yoh was a little occupied at the moment.

"Oh I didn't take you down that hard you big baby," said the girl currently sitting on top of him. She looked about Yoh's age with blond hair and dark eyes.

"Who are you?" Yoh asked in a strained voice, "And could you please get off of me?" The girl complied and even helped him up.

"Did you hit your head, Hao?" Yoh blinked at her.

"I think you've got me confused with someone else, miss," Yoh said. The girl looked at him for a moment then asked, "When did you get your hair cut?"

"I'm not-" Yoh started but the girl interrupted him.

"I'd better get you home, mom's been worried." She grabbed his arm ignoring his grunt of pain and started to drag him down the street.

"Alright miss, I have no idea who you are so…" Yoh broke free of her grasp and began running in the opposite direction.

"Hao! Where are you going?!" the girl yelled after him. He was halfway down the block when she tried to chase him. Yoh was too fast for her though and lost her in a matter of minutes.

"Who was that?" asked Amidamaru once the girl was out of sight.

"No idea," Yoh answered. He looked around him, they had ended up a few blocks from a church and just beyond that, a cemetery. Yoh could hear voices shouting from the graveyard. By the auras there were two shamans in there, both of them angry. He walked towards them curious, the closer he got the clearer the words became.

"-were so checking her out!"

"I was doing no such thing!"

Yoh stood just outside the gate of the cemetery. Two boys were yelling at each other, one had strange blue hair, the other short black hair with a spike sticking up from the center of it.

"Admit it, you think she's hotter than me!" screamed the blue haired one.

Yoh thought he was acting like a teenage girl.

"She's your sister!" the dark haired boy replied throwing his hands up.

'Wow, didn't see that one coming!' Yoh thought. He and Amidamaru exchanged surprised looks. Listening to these two was thoroughly entertaining.

"Are you saying she's not hot?!" the blue haired boy demanded.

"I'm not, ugh! I don't even know why I talk to you when you're like this. Look Horo, your sister is very attractive, but there's a slight problem. She's a girl! The only one I love it you!"

"Really?" the boy now identified as Horo asked. The other boy nodded.

"Oh Ren!" Horo yelled as he hugged the other boy, "I love you!"

Ren smirked, "I know."

Amidamaru's eyes widened as the two started passionately making out. Yoh just smiled at the cute moment and Amidamaru's discomfort.

"Uh, Master Yoh?" Amidamaru said.

"Hm?"

"Can we go now?"

"Okay, let's leave these two love birds to themselves." They turned away from the scene and walked in silence down the street. They passed a dentists office and a park.

"What now master Yoh?"

"I dunno,' Yoh shrugged. Secretly he felt tired and his back hurt like hell every time he moved but he didn't want to tell Amidamaru this as it would make the ghost even more worried about him.

'Small chance of that,' he thought wryly. Amidamaru had been worse than a mother hen for the past couple of days ever since he'd…Well, Amidamaru had always been on his case about his health; physical and mental. Yoh knew Amidamaru blamed himself for the life they had, even though it wasn't his fault at all. In his darkest moods Yoh was tempted to blame his spirit protector too, but he didn't. Amidamaru was the only one he had. He was his best friend, father figure, and big brother all rolled into one.

"Would you like to go back to the cemetery? I'm sure those boys have left by now," Yoh said.

"What about you?" Amidamaru asked. Yoh stretched flinching as his back protested to the movement. Amidamaru didn't notice.

"I'll be fine on my own for a little bit. You go ahead and hang out. Maybe there'll be some ghosts from your era there," Yoh encouraged smiling at the samurai. Amidamaru smiled softly back.

"You'll call for me if you run into trouble?"

"Yeah, yeah," Yoh waved him off, "I'll be okay." Amidamaru nodded and disappeared transporting himself back to the cemetery. Yoh immediately sat on the soft grass by the curb hissing. He wasn't sure how much longer he could have gone without giving away how much damage that girl had done to his back when she'd tackled him. That would be the first order of business then, washing off the fresh blood he could feel running down his back.

He stood slowly and turned to go to the river they'd camped by earlier, letting his thoughts drift. Inevitably his mind wandered back to that morning in the woods, the woman who'd attacked him. All the unanswered questions ran through his head. Why was this X-law group after him? He knew they were the ones who had murdered his parents; they were chasing him now too. He'd been lucky to find Amidamaru only a few days after his parents' death. He wouldn't have survived, literally, without the samurai to protect him.

But even after all this time he didn't know why they were after him. All he'd had time to think about was staying one step ahead of them. Up till now he'd done so with no casualties. But killing that woman had changed it. Now he was second guessing himself.

Killing anyone for any reason was wrong. Yet, after he'd killed her, after Amidamaru had gotten him back to their camp site, after the shock had worn off he'd realized something. She would never come after him again. She, at least, would never have another chance to hurt him. That was one less member of the X-laws to worry about. Plus, they had no qualms about killing him…

But killing was wrong; it went against everything he believed in. Every life was precious and as soon as that woman's soul left her body that was something the world had lost. What if she had a family? What if he'd orphaned a child just as he'd been? He could hardly stand putting someone through that.

It had been self defense though…

* * *

Hao wondered what his life would be like if it were less _boring. _

"Come on spirit of fire, lets try it again," he told the elemental that was his spirit ally. The fire spirit was about the size and shape of a human toddler. They were in the woods for some training, there was really nothing Hao would rather do. Off to their left was the river, he liked having water nearby just in case.

The little spirit chirped sort of dejectedly. Hao had long ago learned the language the junior pyro and took this to mean 'but I don't wanna.' He ignored his spirit's lack of enthusiasm.

"Come on," Hao said. Spirit of fire chirped once more then got to work.

Hao used his furioku to animate leaves which he sent after spirit of fire. The spirit struck back with a ferocity that belied his size. Smiling in satisfaction Hao doubled his efforts. The spirit slashed his way through the leaves, staying just ahead of the little creatures. Hao only half paid attention to the exercise, they'd done it a thousand times. What he really needed was someone stronger than he was to fight. Kicking Ren and Horo's butts just didn't do the trick.

Spirit of fire finished off the last of the leaf spirits and jumped into Hao's arms unexpectedly, nuzzling his cheek like a happy cat. Hao patted him on the head smiling.

"Good job," he praised the spirit. The spirit chirped happily. Suddenly he growled looking at something over Hao's shoulder. Hao turned around to see what was upsetting his friend. He couldn't sense anything but spirit of fire obviously could. He kept up his growling as Hao scanned the trees for the perceived threat. A twig snapped; Hao and the spirit of fire turned their heads to the branches of a tree to their right. Perched on a large branch was a man in a white uniform. His eyes were so wide as he stared at Hao the fire shaman thought they might fall out. Hao was about to ask the guy what the hell he was doing in the tree but the man went first. He pulled out a gun with shaking hands, the end was glowing with furioku. Hao took a half step back, then realized what he'd done. He took a step forward then another, a friendly smile (he hoped) on his face. The gun was pointed right at his chest.

"D-don't come any c-closer!" the man warned keeping the weapon on him.

"Alright," Hao complied. He knew he should have tried to get away from the man but he'd frozen. And it seemed like the man was afraid of something; spirit of fire maybe? He decided to try talking to him.

"There's really no need for that," he said nodding at the gun. The man gulped. Then a resolute look came to his face.

"I have no choice, even if I die…" Hao had no time to try to figure out what the hell the guy was talking about, he'd put both hands on the gun and fired. Hao ducked to the ground and rolled. The spirit of fire stayed with him, clinging to his shoulder. Hao barely had time to come back up before the man fired again. The shot went wild hitting the water behind them. Using every bit of speed his training had taught him Hao ran at the man managing to knock the gun out of his hand before he could react. The man jumped to the ground trying to retrieve the weapon but Hao followed. He kicked the gun away forcing the man to fight him hand to hand. Hao was pretty sure he could beat him in this area, he'd been taught self-defense by Ren.

The man blocked his first blow, returning one that made Hao's ears ring. All the time he was trying to keep his eyes on Hao and looking around wildly. Because of this Hao easily swept his legs out from under him. the man, instead of falling threw his weight backwards, doing a backflip and putting space between he and Hao. The man put his hands up in surrender. Warily, Hao lowered his own arms.

"I know I can't defeat you Asakura," the man said, "but there are others much stronger than I in our group. We have the power of Jean-sama behind us, and we will put an end to your evil!"

"What?" Hao asked not having a clue what the man was raving about. The man didn't answer but pulled another gun from his jacket and fired, hitting Hao straight in the chest with the blast. Hao fell to the ground, unconscious before he even hit.

An hour later Hao awoke suddenly. Why wasn't he dead? Where was the man? The last question made him leap to his feet ready to defend himself or dodge. Getting up so fast made his head throb painfully and he fell to his knees feeling nauseous. The spirit of fire appeared before him. Hao smiled weakly at the flame spirit who was managing to look worried.

"I'm fine," he answered the questioning chirp. The spirit chirped again as Hao stood shakily.

"What did he hit me with?" he wondered out loud looking down at himself. There seemed to be nothing wrong with his chest. So why did he feel like he'd just been hit by an eighteen wheel truck?

_I did say I wanted someone stronger to fight_ he thought thinking back. The man had obviously been thinking more about escape than actually fighting and still managed to get some good hits in. Why had he just given up? Where was he now?

Hao looked around once again attempting to sense for any shaman in the area. Of course his sensing range wasn't really that big, but there was no one for at least fifty yards.

Slowly, he was still a little dizzy, Hao started back towards town. The spirit of fire jumped back on his shoulder.

Next time, Hao vowed as they made their way back to the house, he would not be beaten so easily.

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Yay, chapter one! I might have to go back and look over what I've go written so far, I think there might be a few things I need to cover. But other than that, the next update should be soon. Thanks in advance for reviews! 


	3. Ch2:Down Time

Disclaimer: I don't own it. If I did Anna and Tamao would definately be together.

Warnings: Well you guys know the drill; **twincest, yaoi, swearing, violence**.

A/N: My laptop gets internet whenever the hell he feels like it so I'll try to keep him happy so I can get chapter three out by tomorrow. Oh, and band camp's been getting in the way. (Day one I totally went home and passed out.) So yeah, those are my excuses. On with the fic!

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Chapter 2: Down time 

The internal struggle continued as Yoh found the river and followed it a ways into the woods to make sure no one would see him. By now the cut across his back was throbbing. It took a lot just to get his clothes off and step into the water. The effort was well worth it however. The water was cold and clear and felt wonderful on his back having a slight numbing effect. First he washed his worn clothes and laid them out to dry on the bank. Then he drifted in the river; the current in this part wasn't very strong so he stayed in one spot easily.

When he was nice and pruny he got out and dried off. His clothes were dry and he slipped them on quickly. The sun was warm but the forest was shady and cool with a gentle breeze making the tree branches sway. Not wanting a repeat of the incident with the girl in town Yoh wandered aimlessly around the forest, taking simple pleasure in the sound of birds singing in the trees and keeping his mind carefully blank. He found that on the rare occasions when he was by himself his mind turned to negative thoughts. By not thinking he avoided all the stress, confusion, and doubts that threatened to consume him if he pondered over them.

He was concentrating on not thinking so hard he was startled to find the light dimming as it grew late. Amidamaru would be looking for him soon. Yoh made his way back to town. Once he got out of the line of the trees he found it was not quite as late as he'd first thought, the shade of the trees had made it seem darker. The sun was just setting when he found his way to the graveyard where he' left Amidamaru. He saw the spirit talking to some ghosts, a Chinese war lord it looked like, and a really tiny girl. Yoh smiled to himself; Amidamaru hadn't seen him. That was okay, he didn't want to interrupt. Yoh jumped the fence easily; it was locked by this time, and went to sit in a secluded part of the cemetery. The spirit's were all over gathering news from the newcomer and didn't even notice Yoh, probably not realizing he was a shaman. That was fine; it gave Yoh a chance for some stargazing.

He lay down on the damp grass using his backpack as a pillow. Lazily he traced the constellations with his eyes. It comforted him that at least in the stars point of view he was insignificant, just a miniscule speck on a distant planet. They didn't want to hound him to the ends of the earth; they weren't obsessed with killing him.

Yoh fell asleep wondering what it'd be like to have a normal life.

Hao's day had been…strange. Firstly, he'd run into Anna while walking out of the forest. She'd started babbling about his hair, he really didn't know what had gotten into her. She'd tried to drag him home with her but he'd escaped. As soon as he'd lost the crazy girl he took the spirit of fire into the forest for some training by the river. Then there was the fight with the stranger, he had no idea what the guy's problem was, it almost seemed like he was trying to run not fight. And how did he know his name?

Hao didn't even go home, his family was in the next city over at some convention, they wouldn't be home that night. What was the point of going home to an empty house? He wandered around the rest of the afternoon, mostly trying to avoid Anna. At one point Anna had found him again, the girl was persistent, he had to give her that. It was annoying. So he had to escape once again, thankfully the idiot hadn't roped Horo and Ren into helping her yet. Hao finally decided to go to the once place that the 'normal' people wouldn't bother him; the cemetery.

There was a rumor in town that the cemetery was haunted by vengeful spirits. Hao snorted out loud at the thought, vengeful his ass, not a one of those ghosts were even capable of hurting a fly.

The sun was just setting as he came upon the peaceful scene. A strange tension in his shoulders left as soon as he took in the peaceful graves bathed in the orange glow of the evening sky. Already he could see a few ghosts floating about. There was Pasha, the swim champion who'd died having an allergic reaction to shell fish. And next to her, Ryan, a daredevil who'd met his end skydiving. They waved to him smiling and he waved back then broke into a run. With a huge leap he cleared the spiked fence, skidding to a stop just before hitting an especially large grave marker in the shape of an angel. A grinning skeletal face appeared out of the stone inches from his own.

"Nice try Hikaru," Hao taunted the spirit of the little boy. The skull mask was removed revealing a smiling six year old boy, front teeth missing, never to grow in as he'd never reach adulthood. Still smiling the child replaced the Halloween mask and went on his way, no doubt to try to scare other spirits. Hao shook his head; he really didn't feel like talking tonight, it'd been a long day. What he really wanted was a chance to look up at the stars without interference from the adults who enforced the town curfew. No one in their right minds would spend the night in a graveyard. Lucky he wasn't in his right mind Hao grinned.

Hao found his usual spot and lay down on his back in the soft grass. It was a warm night; he doubted he'd get cold at all. Lazily, he watched the play of color across the sky as it went from orange to red, to purple, to a deep blue and then the stars appeared. The spirit of fire was off by some spirits chirping happily. They had no idea what the little ghost was saying but they thought the little spirit was cute. And since the fire ghost didn't sleep it was nice to keep him occupied.

Smiling softly to himself Hao closed his eyes and drifted into a world of dreams.

_Dream_

_Hao was once again watching the faceless boy battle the people who were apparently after him. This was a memory he could tell, not an actual battle. Well, it was an actual battle, it just wasn't happening right then. Obviously the other boy was having some sort of moral dilemma concerning this particular fight for no reason Hao could see. _

_There came the woman with pink hair in the white uniform. She fired her guns at the boy. Even though he knew how it ended he couldn't help the anxious feeling in the pit of his stomach as he looked on. _

_Once again he watched as the teen gave her chance after chance to stop, to leave. He wasn't trying to hurt her. But still the woman persisted and finally took the boy's back, slicing down cruelly. This time Hao didn't feel the wound but he still winced at the awful pain it must have been causing the teen. Then the woman went in for the killing blow and the boy just lost it. Hao understood, he felt the same way. Obviously this woman had no problem killing the boy, it was only right that he take her life. The situation was kill or be killed. _

_Hao watched from his viewpoint high above the scene as the teen ran the woman through with his sword, watched as the gravity of what he'd done sank in and the boy collapsed to his knees shaking, staring into space, trying to make sense of the action. About this time the boy's ghost would come to find him. _

…_any moment now. _

_The boy was still kneeling on the ground, Hao could see his shoulders shaking. This was…different. Where the hell was the samurai? Hao sighed. Well, there was nothing he could do but watch right? _

_Or was there? _

_Obviously this wasn't just a memory or the other spirit would have shown up by now to take the boy away, thus ending the dream. And Hao was having the dream not the boy so he should be able to do what he wanted with the dream right? With this thought in mind Hao drifted down to the ground and went to stand in front of the other boy whose face was lowered, hidden by large brown bangs much like Hao's own, just shorter in length. _

_He waited for the boy to acknowledge his presence. When he made no move to do so Hao sighed and kneeled in front of him. _

"_She deserved to die," he said skipping the preliminaries entirely. And it didn't matter whether or not he introduced himself; this was a dream after all. _

_The boy looked at him quickly. Hao's breath caught in his throat at the face he now saw for the first time, it was his own. What the hell? Was this his subconscious, being unable to give the figure before him a face just copy his own? The boy looked equally surprised but recovered. Hao supposed this was just a reflection of himself and went on. _

"_She wouldn't have shown you any mercy; it's only fair that you gave her none." _

"_How can you say that?!" _

_Hao blinked at the outburst. "You don't think she deserved to die?" he asked truly confused. What was this kid on? It was clearly self-defense, what was so wrong about that? _

"_No! No one deserves to die! Every life is precious and I didn't have the right to take hers!" _

"_But she has the right to take yours? That's not fair." Hao said reasonably. The other boy just stared at him. "Look," he continued, "I saw what happened, you did everything you could to prevent the fight. You aren't at fault just because you survived. If anything, she was at fault for attacking you." _

"_But…it's wrong," the teen repeated. He started to shake with silent sobs. Hao did the first thing that came to mind and put his arms around him. _

"_I'm so-sorry," he whispered as Hao made soothing noises. Hao didn't know who he was apologizing to so answered, _

"_I know." _

_End Dream_


	4. Ch3:Meeting Your Doppelganger

Disclaimer: I don't own it. But my birthday is coming up, so any one want to give it to me?

Warnings: **twincest, swearing, yaoi, violence, killer spiders that will eat you if you don't review**

A/N: Okay, so I didn't wait until tomorrow. My bad. I figured so long as the internet was on and I had the chapter all typed up...but don't expect this too often!

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Chapter 3: Meeting your doppelganger

Hao awoke the next morning pondering over the strange dream he'd had. But, like most dreams, the more he tried to think about it the more it slipped away from him until the only thing he could remember was it had been about the boy. He'd finally gotten to see what he looked like and something about his face had shocked him. Everything else was a blank.

The sun was just rising as he sat up looking around the cemetery. The graves were mostly silent now, only a samurai remained, he was seated on a gravestone with a chirping spirit of fire. The ghosts didn't notice him. Hao heard a noise and turned his head to his left. Sitting not two feet away from him was a teen that looked exactly the same age as he. Scratch that, he just looked exactly the same.

The other boy's eyes were widened in shock; Hao figured his face must look the same as this was like looking in a mirror.

"What the-"

"-hell?" Hao finished.

"Who are you?" they asked as one. Now that Hao was a little more awake he could see the only major difference between them was their hair. The teen next to him had hair only to his shoulders while Hao's brushed his waist. But the color was the same, dark brown, a few shades lighter than the color of their eyes. As he studied the boy's face the dream came flooding back to him, suddenly crystal clear.

"You're the kid from my dream!" he blurted out.

"What?" the kid asked. Instead of the 'what the fuck are you talking about?' Hao was expecting after that really lame statement he said, "You had the same dream?"

Hao took a deep breath trying to calm down. Nervously he ran a hand through his hair.

"Let's try this like we don't look exactly alike. Hi, my name is Hao Asakura," he said.

"I'm Yoh Asakura," the other boy responded. They frowned at each other.

"This could be tougher than I thought…" Hao said.

"Master Yoh!" The teen, Yoh, looked to the samurai ghost just as the spirit of fire launched itself into Hao's arms.

"You're a shaman." Yoh said. Hao nodded. The samurai ghost floated over looking between the two in astonishment.

"Lord Yoh?" the spirit asked questioningly.

"Amidamaru," Yoh said like he was thinking of something else, "This is Hao...Asakura…"

The spirit of fire took that moment to decide Hao was too boring and leap straight at Yoh.

"Ah!" Hao and Yoh cried at the same time. But the spirit sat in Yoh's arms like he'd been there forever. Yoh looked down at the spirit in surprise.

"It's not burning me," he said.

"I guess he likes you," Hao said with the same level of disbelief. He remembered the first time Ren had tried to touch spirit of fire. Luckily it was just his hand, but still, he hadn't completely trusted the little pyro with strangers since. This was to say the least, strange.

"Seems kind of young," Yoh observed, "Did he burn to death?"

"What?" Hao said then understood. "Oh, no, he's not a ghost, he's an element; the spirit of fire."

"Really? He's an element?" the samurai, Amidamaru asked impressed. Hao nodded.

"How did you get an element to be your spirit ally?" Amidamaru asked.

"I don't know." Hao thought back trying to remember a time when he didn't have spirit of fire with him. He couldn't.

"Well Hao, it's been nice talking to you…" Yoh stood.

"Wait," Hao said also standing. "Where are you going?"

"Um…school?"

Hao got the feeling this kid was not only bad at lying, but had never gone to school in his life. Actually he knew Yoh had never gone to school. He decided to make this easier.

"You suck at lying," he stated bluntly.

"Yes I do." Yoh didn't even blink as he said it. Maybe he figured it was futile? Hao mentally shook himself and focused.

"Why do we look alike?" Hao asked.

"I don't know."

Hao tried a different approach. "How long have you been in town?"

"What?" Yoh asked confused at the change in subject.

"We just arrived yesterday," the samurai provided. Yoh looked pointedly at him and he fell silent.

"How long are you staying?"

"As long as we can."

"Amidamaru…"

"Yes?"

Yoh sighed, "Nothing."

"Hao!" a new voice interrupted. Hao recognized his friend HoroHoro as the one calling. And just a second later the blue haired Ainu appeared, leaping over the graveyard fence. Tao Ren, Horo's boyfriend, followed right behind him with his spirit ally, a fierce Chinese war lord by the name of Bason. Horo's spirit ally was no doubt sleeping in his pocket. Yoh gave his spirit a sharp look and the samurai disappeared into a black object sticking out of Yoh's pocket. Hao gave him a questioning look but said nothing as his friends approached.

"Whoa! There's freaking two of you!" Horo exclaimed once he spotted Hao and Yoh.

"Hao, what's going on?" Ren, ever the practical one asked coming to stand beside Horo.

"The hell if I know," Hao muttered. Louder he said, "This is Yoh guys, Yoh Asa-"

"Just Yoh," Yoh interrupted. He smiled easily at the two. Horo smiled back, Ren, as was Ren's nature, did not smile but studied Yoh carefully.

"So, Hao, is this your long lost twin brother or something?" Horo asked. Hao noticed Yoh's smile wilt around the edges.

"Like that happens in real life," Ren said rolling his eyes at Horo.

"It so could! What if I had a twin?" he asked.

"I'd have to kill one of you," Ren smirked.

"Whatever," Horo huffed. Yoh glanced at Hao who shrugged in a _don't-look-at-me-I-just-hang-out-with-them_ kind of way. Yoh smiled wider in amusement then looked to Hao.

"Well, it was nice meeting you but I really should get going…" he said.

"Wait a minute! You don't even know our names," Horo laughed. "What's the rush, it's not often we get to meet anyone from outside of town."

"Yes, and considering your resemblance to Hao, which I'm sure has caused you all kinds of trouble on its own, it'd be rather rude of us to not offer you any hospitality," Ren said.

"Hey!" Hao interjected at the insult but swore he saw Yoh wince at the statement.

"You should hang out with us!" Horo said. "We were just coming to find Hao so we could have a shaman fi-oof!" Ren kicked Horo before he finished, glancing at Yoh meaningfully.

"A sparing match," the Chinese boy said. Hao looked at Yoh to see his reaction. Horo and Ren thought he was a human? Couldn't they sense his spirit energy? Hao realized something and stared at Yoh harder. Now that he tried to sense it, there was only a tiny bit of mana coming from Yoh, no more than a normal human had the capacity to hold. And he'd hidden his samurai in that tablet thing. Didn't he want anyone to know he was a shaman? He tried to catch Yoh's eye but Yoh ignored him, avoiding his gaze.

Hao got fed up with it and decided to just tell them. "Guys, Yoh's a shaman," he said.

"What?" Ren sputtered "I can barely sense any mana from him! I think you're mistaken."

"He's hiding it somehow," Hao shrugged. "But he has a spirit, he's in that tablet," he added pointing to Yoh's pocket.

Yoh gave a sigh and directed an exasperated look towards Hao. "You can come on out now, Amidamaru," he said to the stone. Immediately his samurai spirit appeared hovering protectively over his master's shoulder.

"Oh, wow, I totally thought you were a human there," Horo laughed.

"Is your mana just that low or are you still suppressing it?" Ren asked. Horo punched him in the arm. "Ow!" Ren growled at the ice shaman, which was all the warning Horo got before Ren tackled him. As they rolled on the ground Hao and Yoh stepped back.

"Um…do they do this a lot?" Yoh asked. Hao sighed rolling his eyes.

"More than you know. And nine times out of ten they end up making out after a fight, which you definitely _don't_ want to watch."

Yoh cast a sly glance at his ghost who turned away preferring to start a conversation with Bason. 'Homophobic?' Hao mouthed the question. Yoh just smiled. Hao nodded, just as a protesting squeak was heard from the ground. Ren and Horo froze for a split second both were on their side, then Horo sat up quickly looking panicked.

"Kororo? Are you okay?" He reached a hand into his pocket and pulled out his little nature spirit, a tiny Koropokkur girl with big black eyes glaring balefully at him. Horo looked her over for any damage but finding none let out a sigh of relief and smiled goofily at the little spirit in his hand.

"Sorry about that," he said to her. She pretended to be mad for a moment then gave him a wide smile, hugging his thumb. Horo stood and placed her on his shoulder where she grabbed a tie of his bandanna for balance.

"Oh good, it's the one out of ten chance that they don't suck face after a fight," Hao said. Ren glared at him but Horo waved a hand.

"You're just jealous you don't have anybody," he said.

"That's it exactly," Hao drawled sarcastically.

"So are we going to fight or what?" Ren asked finally getting impatient. Horo's eyes brightened as he got an idea.

"Hey! Now that Yoh's here we could do a tag team fight! Me and Ren versus Hao and Yoh!" Ren snorted.

"He'll have to have Hao on his team if he wants any hope of defeating us."

"Hey guys, Yoh is standing right here," Hao defended.

"That's okay, I really don't want to fight," Yoh said good naturedly.

"Too scared?" Ren taunted. Hao fixed him with a glare that had been known to wither flowers.

"That's enough, Ren." He knew Ren was a nice guy, he'd never realized what an ass he could be to outsiders.

"Yeah Ren, chill out," Horo agreed.

"Fine." Ren backed down once he knew he was outnumbered. That was not like him at all. Hao wondered what else he had up his sleeve.

They talked Yoh into at least coming to watch since he didn't want to fight. He followed them down to the river-front to a clearing in the woods. It looked like a natural meadow, with only a couple trees growing up in the middle. The grass was sparse and generally flowerless and a couple trees were marked with burn marks. Yoh looked between the trees and spirit of fire suspiciously. Hao shrugged. "We come here a lot." Spirit of fire chirped and jumped from Hao's shoulder to the ground.

"Don't you guys ever get bored with this?" Yoh asked. "I mean, it can't be fun to fight each other every single day."

"Everyday?" Horo laughed. "We only go all out about once every two weeks, that's how long it takes for our mana levels to get back up to normal.

"Really?" Yoh asked.

"Yeah," Horo said, "How long does it take you?" Yoh thought about it.

"About a day, I think."

From his other side Ren snorted. "Probably because your levels are so low it doesn't take much to recharge."

"Ren!" Horo scolded. Yoh just smiled.

"It's cool, it's cool." He leaned against a tree as Ren walked past into the clearing where Hao was waiting with the spirit of fire. Ren's kwan-dao was already glowing with the infusion of his spirit energy.

"Watch, he'll start out like he's going to win but Hao will totally kick his ass. No matter how many times they do this, Hao just has more power." Horo said. Ren shot him an angry look. "Did I mention he has really sharp hearing?" Horo said grinning nervously. Yoh smiled but his eyes were all for the fight before him. Hao's stance was relaxed yet aware of everything. Ren was tense, obviously competitive that bordered on aggression. It reminded him of one of the X-Laws, a tall blond man with glasses.

They stood appraising each other carefully. Ren was the first to make his move. He lunged at Hao, kwan-dao going straight for his torso. Hao moved smoothly to the side then used his arm, with spirit of fire's flaming aura to protect it, to stop Ren's next blow. He then leapt out of Ren's reach gracefully and summoned flame to his hand which he threw at the other. Ren knocked them out of his way with his kwan-dao as he came at Hao yet again. Hao stayed just out of reach of the blade, continuing his bombard of fire balls.

"This is usually about where he looses it and goes at Hao with everything he has," Horo said for Yoh's benefit. Yoh nodded.

"The way he's going he'll burn out his mana way before Hao even breaks a sweat. Does he always depend on power moves?"

"Pretty much. It usually works too, with everyone but Hao though. It's like the guy's got an endless supply of power, and Ren's strategy is to use up all his opponents energy in a few moves with his attacks. Ninety-nine percent of the time it's flawless."

"But the one percent's the one that could get him ki-hurt." Yoh concluded.

"Mmhmm," Horo said watching the fight. Ren did a series of blows Yoh knew a normal person couldn't see they were so fast. Hao was actually overwhelmed for a minute and sustained a scratch on his arm. Yoh was positive his own upper arm twinged in sympathy. It might have only been a scratch but the small wounds were the one's that hurt the most every time.

Hao recovered from the attack, spirit of fire had somehow expanded on his forearm, looking like a shield. It blocked Ren's kwan-dao perfectly. Ren, seeing his attack was useless, let up and tried a different approach. Or he would have it Hao had let him. But as soon as there was even the smallest pause between Ren's attacks the spirit of fire changed once again, this time into a sword. Almost negligently he broke Ren's non-existent defense. In no time flat the flame sword was inches from Ren's neck.

"Do you give?" Hao asked. Ren gritted his teeth but nodded.

"That didn't last very long," Yoh commented as Hao withdrew his sword and it returned to it's natural shape.

"Think you can do better weakling?" Ren growled at him.

"Now you did it," Horo muttered.

All Yoh had to warn him was the bellow of rage as Ren lunged for him. It was more than enough. Yoh, though reluctant to fight, was more than happy to defend himself from Ren's very sharp kwan-dao. He blocked it with his arm and with the other motioned to his ghost. Amidamaru came to his aid immediately, integrating with his katana. Before all his battles had been with the X-Laws who were trying their best to kill him. Ren was just trying to prove he was stronger than Yoh, humiliate him. It was a nice change.

Yoh couldn't help but toy with him for awhile. He's stay just out of reach of Ren's kwan-dao but not deliver any blows even though Ren was wide open to attack most of the time. Ren soon caught on and redoubled his efforts, forcing Yoh to take him more seriously. Just because this was a spar didn't mean they couldn't be hurt. Every movement he made seemed to hurt his back, pulling at the tight skin. He had to finish this quickly or risk re-opening the wound.

The flowing movements he'd been assuming suddenly changed, became more aggressive. Ren, caught off guard for a second, threw such a flurry of blows at Yoh with his weapon, Yoh had to leap out of the way, flipping on his hands backwards. The move cost him, he felt a nasty pull to his back that made him wince. That second of distraction was all Ren needed. Before Yoh knew it he was upon him, stabbing with his kwan-dao right for his heart. In a flash Yoh remembered the gun pointing at his heart and he lost it. He brought both his legs up and kicked out, hitting Ren right in the chest, effectively knocking the wind out of him. Before he lost the advantage Yoh spun in mid-air and landed another kick to the side of Ren's head while he knocked the kwan-dao away with his katana. Ren flew away from the force of it and landed on his back on the ground. He didn't get up.

Yoh stared down at the still form of Ren horrified. His katana dropped from his hands as he went to the Chinese shaman. Horo got there first and checked Ren's vitals professionally. He rolled his eyes smiling as Yoh kneeled next to him.

"He's got a bump on his head that's going to hurt like hell tomorrow but he'll be fine," he said like it was no big deal. Yoh couldn't understand the utter calm about Horo, he's just struck down his lover and he was still being nice to him? Yoh didn't get it. And all he could think about was the other person he'd made to lay still, only she wasn't ever getting back up. It seemed that as he gaped at Ren a hazy figure of the woman he'd murdered overlapped Ren's body, becoming more solid the longer he watched, until all he could see was her. Her blank eyes stared at him accusingly.

"I'm sorry," Yoh said to her. Horo looked at him reassuringly.

"It's okay, he's fine. And now he'll stop being an ass to you," he said.

The figure of the woman broke abruptly as Ren moved. He sat up rubbing his head. "I'm not an ass," he muttered fixing Horo with a glare as soon as he opened his eyes.

"Whatever. Can you stand?" Horo asked.

"Not yet, that was a pretty good hit," he said to Yoh smiling fiercely. Yoh's eyes widened in shock. He'd just knocked Ren unconscious and the boy was _complimenting_ him? This was too much. At the very least Hao would be shocked, angry; some kind of normal reaction for Pete's sake! He looked up to find his look-a-like's eyes on him, a look of profound respect evident on his face.

_These people aren't normal_ Yoh thought. "I have to go," he muttered. Before anyone could stop him he'd picked up his katana and bag, and disappeared into the forest. He didn't answer when they tried to call him back, and he didn't look at Amidamaru at all.

"We're leaving tomorrow," was all he said to the spirit and made himself busy looking for a place to spend the night.


	5. Ch4:Shaman Fight Round Two

Disclaimer: I don't own Shaman King. I'd sell my soul to my sister if I could tho'.

Warning: **language, yaoi, twincest, swearing, violence. **nothing major...XP

Hey guys. I'm kinda not getting as many reviews as I would like, so if you haven't been reviewing before, please do! And much love to the people who have left me some. This is yasha-fire-starter, Lost to Reality, puppet from the dead, Hikariri, kasai tenshi, galliechan, Verysek, _vendy5, _and Yuta. Thanks so much!

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4: Shaman Fight: Round Two

Hao spent the rest of the day looking for Yoh. He'd disappeared into the woods but Hao went into town thinking he'd double back and go there. It didn't feel right to him for some reason, looking in town. Logically it was the only place Yoh could go. He hadn't mentioned traveling with anyone, hell, he hadn't mentioned a single thing about himself at all. But come on, he was Hao's age. Fourteen year olds did not travel by themselves. At the very least he had a close friend or a family member checked into one of the local bed and breakfasts. So that's where he started.

It was a good plan, very logical. After the fifth and last bed and breakfast however, Hao had to conclude that Yoh had not been to any of them.

Okay, so maybe he was staying with a relative. That seemed like the next assumption to make. However that theory fell apart the more Hao thought about it. It was a small town, a close knit community. If a stranger had come to town immediately everyone would know. Yoh was probably only overlooked because people mistook him for Hao.

As the afternoon wore on Hao was about to give up. His family would be coming home the next day; this was his last night to not have to go inside when his mother called. Invariably, only half thinking about it he went to the woods. He still wanted to find Yoh and had a crazy idea that only by not thinking and letting his instincts guide him he could do that.

_This is so dumb_ he was thinking and hour later. The spirit of fire was perched on his usual spot on Hao's shoulder and Hao was in a part of the woods he wasn't familiar with. Or maybe he had been here before but it was so long ago he couldn't remember. Either way, if he wasn't careful he might get lost.

A twig snapping from behind made him turn quickly, but it was only a squirrel collecting a nut from the ground and scampering up a nearby tree.

He was about to just give up and go home when he got the sense that Yoh was just ahead. He didn't know how he could know this, it was like he had a built in tracking system. He tried opening his mind to sense any shaman in the area; nothing. The feeling that Yoh was just ahead persisted despite the lack of evidence. Three yards later he stumbled onto a small stream within a clearing. On the other side of the steam was Yoh, Amidamaru was no where in sight. The memorial tablet was sitting on fallen tree. Yoh's back was to him, he seemed to be deep in thought. Hao half thought about leaving him then thought again. He did _not_ just spend his entire afternoon looking for him to turn back now. Hao Asakura was did not give up that easily.

He took a step towards Yoh, the other shaman didn't hear him. So Hao tapped him on the shoulder. He regretted that later.

Yoh grabbed his arm in both hands, using the fact that he was sitting to his advantage and flipping Hao over him and onto his back. Hao found himself looking up at Yoh while trying to re-learn how to breathe. Yoh for a split second, looked about as fierce as Hao had ever seen him. The expression literally drained from his face, replaced by horror at what he'd done.

"Nice," Hao muttered. He sat up slowly, turning so he could face Yoh. "I'm fine, it's okay," he said as Yoh opened his mouth to apologize. "I shouldn't have startled you like that."

"Lord Yoh?" Amidamaru had appeared, hovering over Yoh's shoulder.

"I'm okay," Yoh said. Amidamaru frowned, and Hao caught him looking worriedly at Yoh's back. Something tugged at the back of Hao's mind but was gone just as he tried to examine it.

Yoh focused on Hao almost suspiciously. "What are you doing here?"

Hao stood and Yoh followed suit so they were staring at each other. It was strangely…intimate what with them being the same height. Yoh seemed to a little uncomfortable with such direct eye contact, the smile on his lips did not reach his brown eyes. How did his eyes manage to look lazy and wary at the same time? Hao mentally shook himself.

"I came to find you," he said. If anything Yoh looked more suspicious.

"How did you find me? I've been hiding my furioku," he said. Hao shrugged.

"I don't know," he said not willing to admit that it was his crazy instincts that had unerringly led him to Yoh. Yoh wouldn't believe him anyway, hell he didn't believe himself. "Just a hunch I guess."

They stood in silence for a while. Yoh finally sighed. "I'm sorry about Ren," he said, "how is he?"

Hao made a dismissive sound, some where between a huff and a sigh. "Probably locked in a closet with Horo somewhere; attempting to break the world record for farthest distance down Horo's throat with his tongue." He was not prepared for Yoh's reaction. The brunette looked to the side coughing, not before Hao saw his flaming face. Amidamaru was equally scandalized.

"Please excuse me Lord Yoh," he said and disappeared into his tablet. The spirit of fire, now that he was out of sight, leapt from Hao's shoulder and started to explore his surroundings. He knelt by the stream and seemed to be having a conversation with it. _Elements _Hao thought mentally rolling his eyes.

Yoh regained control of himself, sort of. His face was still tinged a light pink across his nose and cheeks. "So he's alright?" he asked.

"Yes," Hao reassured him deciding for the moment to not add anything extra. It was tempting however, Yoh was pretty cute when he blushed.

_I can't believe I just thought that_.

"What exactly are you doing here?" Yoh asked again. Hao shrugged.

"I just wanted to find you. You know, make sure you're okay, not feeling too guilty about Ren. If you ask me, he deserved that hit. He can be an ass."

"I don't think-"Yoh started to protest but Hao went on.

"Anyway, he won't be that way to you anymore. All it takes to earn his respect is to prove you're strong."

Hao shrugged. "It's just the way he is," he defended his friend at Yoh's look. Yoh backed down.

"But that's only partly why I'm here. I was wondering if you'd consider showing me some of your techniques."

"You mean train you?" Yoh clarified.

"Yeah," Hao said swallowing his pride.

"I don't know…"

"Please?" Hao asked. Yoh had no idea how hard it was for him to ask for help from anyone. He gave Yoh his bet puppy dog eyes. It was worth a shot, right?

"Fine," Yoh said.

_Works every time. _"Awesome! How long are you going to be in town?" Hao asked. Yoh's eyes darted to the side quickly then looked back at him.

"I'm not sure," he answered shrugging.

"Well, ask your parents or something," Hao said.

"I'll do that," Yoh said without missing a beat.

_He didn't even blink_ Hao thought stunned. Yoh was an awesome liar. Maybe he'd finally met his match.

"So when can we start?" Hao asked willing to ignore Yoh's strangeness with the promise of becoming a better shaman. Yoh put his hands on his knees and stood.

"Right now," he said He motioned for Hao to stand. Hao complied eyeing him warily.

"What are we going to do?" he asked.

"Have a small shaman fight. Can you integrate with spirit of fire?" Hao nodded. He motioned to his spirit ally, who came right away at his master's call, as Yoh walked a few feet away from him towards the memorial tablet where Amidamaru was dwelling. The spirit emerged by his lords side.

"Lord Yoh?" he questioned the young shaman.

"It's okay, Amidamaru," Yoh said. The samurai frowned at him but moved away.

Hao held out a hand and the spirit of fire leapt into the air, shrinking into a flaming orb about the same size as a tennis ball, and landed in Hao's palm. Hao brought the orb to his front, his breath catching as the ball of flame was absorbed into his chest. The pain lasted only a second and Hao was ready. The integration was complete; he and spirit of fire were one. It was odd looking at the world from an element's eyes. Hao never got tired of it. Everything he saw had a slight red tinge to it and was sharply outlined. Without even thinking about it he knew what everything around him not normally thought of as alive was thinking and feeling. The first time he'd integrated with his spirit all the new input had been disorienting. Now he could sort through it, pick out what he could use. Right now he focused on Yoh, or rather Yoh's inanimate surroundings and the information they could gather from him. The ground underneath Yoh's feet told how much he weighed. The air around him let him know most of Yoh's movements, how hard he was breathing, his heart rate, when he shifted his weight, etc. even the water nearby, emphatic beyond the capacity of any human, told Hao exactly what Yoh was feeling. At least they did in their own language. Hao, like he'd learned to do with spirit of fire's gibbering, translated this into data that made sense to him.

"I've never seen elemental integration," Yoh said. "Your eyes are red." The amazing thing was his heart rate stayed the same. It took more than crazy eyes to freak Yoh out apparently.

"Aren't you going to integrate with your ghost?" Hao asked. Yoh shook his head.

"Ready?" his look alike asked. Hao nodded once and it was on.

Hao lunged at Yoh, his speed greatly increased. He thought the advantage was his. He was wrong.

Yoh, faster than he by far despite the integration, dodged the attack landing lightly behind Hao. He hadn't even drawn his sword yet. The carefree expression on his face was mixed with arrogant humor. Hao stayed where he was for a moment considering. He broke into a borderline evil grin. This wasn't going to be like the play fights with Ren or Horo, this was going to be real. Yoh was strong enough to take him and Hao wasn't even sure who was going to win. That excited him.

Yoh's heart rate sped up at almost the exact time as his own did. They had both come to the same conclusion. With a joint thought between Hao and spirit of fire, two flaming orbs appeared in Hao's upturned palms and spread until his hands were encompassed in the fire. He once again raced at Yoh, faster this time. Yoh drew his katanta, not bothering to try to dodge the attack. Hao slashed at his chest, Yoh stayed inches out of reach, close enough though, that the heat of Hao's hand passing by singed his shirt. He brought his sword up to swing at Hao's unprotected side forcing the fire shaman to dodge or risk getting cut. He leapt back and brought his hands together, forming a flaming sword like he'd done before. He wasn't sure how wise this decision was, but it was a chance for him to test his skills with the weapon.

Yoh barely gave him a moment to switch tactics before he was on him. Hao blocked the first blow just in time, and the second. The third caught him on his side and he gasped as the wind was knocked out of him. He looked down at the wound to see how bad it was. It hurt like hell but his shirt wasn't even cut. He looked back at Yoh questioningly.

Yoh's sword was glowing blue with his furioku, he was going easy on him.

Another hit came before Hao had time to do anything, this time to his shoulder. Yoh was toying with him.

That more than anything pissed Hao off. He was used to people taking him seriously especially when they fought.

He ran at Yoh raising his sword to go for Yoh's chest. Yoh just stood there a surprised look on his face. Hao had time to smirk. Just as he reached the other shaman Yoh disappeared. Hao connected with empty air. He spun wildly, eyes darting around searching for his opponent. Yoh was on the ground before him, in the blink of an eye he's swept Hao's legs out from under him. Hao landed hard on his back grabbing for his sword but Yoh was already above him with his now unshielded katanta near his throat.

"Dead," he reported matter of fact. "Do you surrender?" Hao nodded.

Yoh sheathed his sword and held out a hand to help Hao up. Instead of taking it Hao switched his weight around and used the same move Yoh had to sweep him off his balance. Yoh landed hard on his back letting out a grunt.

"Lord Yoh!" Amidamaru cried in dismay.

He looked up at Hao who was standing over him smirking.

"Dead," he said holding the end of his blade at Yoh's throat.

"That's not fair," Yoh croaked. Hao shrugged.

"Life's not fair," he said smiling to soften the hard truth.

Yoh smiled wryly then grimaced as if in pain. Hao had to admit he was a little banged up himself.

"So what part of the training was this?" Hao asked panting slightly. His side still ached like hell and his legs. Not to mention the fact that the spirit integration was beginning to weaken him. Maintaining a link with a spirit was hard enough, maintaining a link with an element that were so different from any other creature, was down right draining.

"I had to evaluate your strength," Yoh said seeming to have caught his breath.

"What?" Hao cried. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Nope," Yoh grinned, "it gets a lot worse."

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Review Please! If I get at least seven I'll reply to all of them in chapter five!


	6. Ch5:Revelations

Disclaimer: I don't own.

Warnings: Eventual **yaoi **between Hao and Yoh, so yes that is **incest** aka **twincest** which is much more fun to say. Possible **swearing** and **violence.**

A/N: Hey guys, sorry this took so long. Edward, my laptop, was not getting along with the internet. But as promised this chapter I am responding to my reviews! I'm so excited!

**Sakura no Umi-** thank you so much! you were the first reviewer for chapter five! gives cookie  
**Hikariri-** Hehe, Amelia is my older sister, but my friends and I all call her Satan. XP Have no fear, I am definately going to finish this one, I have an ending all written out and everything, now if I could just write the middle...  
**Verysek-** a little short, but here it is! Thanks for reviewing!  
**KiraLacus Forever-** I'm glad you appreciate the switch. I thought it'd be funny if Hao wasn't all that for once.  
**kasai tenshi-** yes! Impossible as it may seem, this is sort of AU (that means I'm taking my creative license for a joy-ride. Wheee!) The Asakura's are all dead except for Hao and Yoh. And as for the other part, I hadn't planned on Yoh having any of Hao's memories, but that would make sense wouldn't it? Hmmm...Thanks for the thought!  
_Lost to Reality- _Yes his back is still hurt. In retrospect, yeah, it should have been giving him hell by now, but that Yoh is one tough cookie. I'm glad you like the change in the twins roles.  
**yasha-fire-starter-** hey man! Eddie's back up, so I'll try to be on gaia more often. btw, to anyone else, if you have an account, my name is eddiespider at gaiaonline dot com, look me up if you want! and back to yasha, you keep writing too! I want to see that vampire story and the PoC fanfic!  
**InsaneBlackHeart-** Thanks, me too. I love writing Yoh like this! It's such a blast!  
**yuriasakura-** I'm glad you like it! I will try to keep updating at resonable intervals!

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5: Revelations

Hao got home around eleven. He would have stayed out later but Yoh had insisted he go home so he 'wouldn't worry his parents.' Even when he explained that his folks were out of town until the next day Yoh insisted. Hao wasn't complaining too much though, he was totally exhausted.

He only barely managed to get into his room without mishap. The anti-burglary security system was on for the night so he had to climb in through his open window on the second floor. The late hour and laborious day made for an interesting climb. He almost fell twice.

When he did make it he fell into bed, not even bothering to change into pjs. He fell asleep instantly.

_He was floating above the nameless boy and his battle with the woman again. Obviously this was a serious offense in the teens point of view. Hao had the weirdest sense of déjà vu as he watched the fight again. Not just because he'd seen the fight before, more like there was something about this particular dream he had to remember. It tugged at the very edge of his mind. _

_Hao was so wrapped up trying to remember whatever it was he'd forgotten he almost missed the end of the battle. He looked up just in time to see the teen's sword pierce through the woman's body and come out the other side. Her face froze in horror, he'd seen it before. The teen fell to the ground, back to him. It used to drive him crazy, the fact that he never saw the boy's face. Now he just accepted it as part of the dreams. That didn't mean he wasn't still curious, however. _

_As if thought had triggered it, he was suddenly kneeling in front of the teen where he'd collapsed to the ground. Hao wondered briefly where the woman's body had gone to, but shrugged it off as just part of the dream. He instead concentrated on the figure before him. _

_Infuriatingly enough, the boy's head was down, his face in shadow. Even so, Hao thought he looked familiar. He was whispering something, Hao had to lean closer to hear. _

"_I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry," the teen kept repeating. _

"_Why?" Hao asked. _

"_I killed her," he answered not looking up. _

"_But she was trying to kill you," Hao pointed out feeling like he'd said this before. _

"_Maybe I deserve to die," the teen whispered even softer. He looked up at Hao and they gasped at the same time. _

"_Hao?" _

"_Yoh?" _

Hao woke up, mind reeling. Yoh was the boy he'd been dreaming about his entire life. That was Yoh. All those horrible things had happened to Yoh. The fight with the woman-his back! Yoh was hurt! And he'd had a shaman fight with him and knocked him right on his back…

"Shit," Hao muttered and went to find Yoh.

He found the shaman in less than forty-five minutes this time. Whatever sense led him unerringly to Yoh he followed without question, hardly even thinking about it in fact. Despite the late hour Yoh was awake, sitting on the fallen tree Amidamaru's tablet had been resting on earlier. Hao could guess why.

"Yoh," Hao said. Yoh turned around smiling. He'd built a small fire apparently and the light from it danced along the trees.

"What are you doing up so late?" he asked.

"I had a weird dream," Hao said studying Yoh carefully.

"No kidding? Me too," Yoh laughed.

"Tell me about it," Hao said. Yoh glanced at him sideways, his smile fading around the edges. He shook his head. "Come on," Hao persisted.

"It's just me reliving a…bad experience," he said carefully. "The funny thing was you were there."

"I know," Hao said. Yoh frowned at him so he continued. "You dreamed about you killing that woman. I know, I dreamed about you killing her. Every night of my entire life I've dreamt of what you've done. I know you have a cut on your back from where she got you with her sword. I know you've been on the run from these X-Laws for a long time. I also know this is the first time you've killed one and you feel really guilty." Hao stopped letting all the information sink in. He wasn't expecting Yoh's reaction. The identical teen got up quickly, carefully not putting his back to Hao, and put the fire between them. Hao made a move to follow him but saw Yoh's hand straying near his sword. The look in his eyes was warning enough.

"You're one of them," he accused. Hao blinked in surprise.

"What?"

"That's the only way you could have known all that," Yoh said. His face went determinedly aggressive and he took a fighting stance.

"I'm not an X-Law," Hao said in disbelief.

"Prove it," Yoh demanded. His hand went to the hilt of his katana as he waited. Hao thought for a moment then smiled sadly.

"Is Amidamaru going to come out anytime soon?" he said quietly. Yoh looked suspicious.

"Why?"

"Because I know you won't want him to hear this."

Yoh looked at him strangely but said, "Not unless I call him."

Hao looked at him seriously. "You're sure you need to hear this?" he asked. Yoh didn't say anything. "Fine, I know something about you that no one else knows." His voice lowered. "Some of those scars on your arms aren't from other people hurting you." Yoh's face went burning red.

"W-what are you talking about?" he said. Hao walked towards him, grabbing a hold of his wrist. He turned the limb palm up and pointed to a very faint scar on the inside of Yoh's arm running from the top of his wrist to the bottom directly over the bluish veins.

"It was winter time; you and Amidamaru had just escaped from some X-Laws. You weren't wounded, physically at least. But they kept telling you how evil you are, how you don't deserve to live. It didn't help that you were kicking their sorry asses. Eventually it got to you. So after Amidamaru went in his tablet to let you sleep you took out your knife that you use to cook with and made that cut on your arm. At the last minute you decided you wanted to live so you didn't make it deep, and then you hid it from Amidamaru."

Yoh was hiding behind his hair as Hao released his wrist.

"You need help Yoh, let me help you," Hao said.

"What do you mean?" Yoh asked.

"Come home with me tonight, I'll patch up your back and you can sleep in a real bed for once," Hao promised.

"Really, I'm fi-" Yoh started to say but Hao cut in.

"Yoh please, you really are wounded."

"I-"

"Do you want it to get infected?" Yoh bit his lip glancing at Hao. Hao understood his fear immediately. Once when Yoh was younger, Hao had to say ten or so, he'd gotten wounded. It had gotten infected and he'd been laid up for several days with fever. The X-Laws had very nearly caught up with him.

"I have medicine at my house," Hao said. "It'll help with the pain and make it heal faster."

His arguments finally persuaded Yoh and the next thing Hao knew they were walking into his house at two in the morning.

Hao led Yoh into his bedroom and told him to stay there while he went to get the medicine. When he came back Yoh was sitting on the bed with his shirt off looking a little uncomfortable. The spirit of fire sensed his distress so was sort of hovering near him. Yoh was patting its head absently.

Hao got straight to work, moving to sit behind Yoh so he could see his back. He sucked in his breath harshly at the sight of the gash running from his shoulder to nearly the other side of his back. At the time he'd received it he probably should have had stitches. Even if Hao knew how to sew a wound together it wouldn't make any difference now, it was too healed to do a whole lot with. He took a wet clothe and wiped most of the dried blood away, going slowly so to not rip anything open. Then he moved on to the ointment, a goopy green concoction that stopped infection and numbed pain. Finally, he carefully taped bandages over it, nearly using the whole role. By the time he was finished and had put the supplies away it was going on three am.

Simultaneously, they both yawned.

"I think we should get to bed now," Hao said going over to his dresser. "I usually just sleep in a pair of pants, it that okay with you?"

"Sure," Yoh said sleepily. Hao withdrew two pair of pajama pants and tossed one to Yoh. They changed quickly, Yoh folding his clothes neatly on the floor at the end of the bed next to his backpack. Hao climbed onto the bed. Yoh hesitated and Hao looked at him.

"Is it alright if we share the bed?" he asked. "I can go sleep on the couch or something-"

"No no! It's fine," Yoh assured him. He climbed onto the other side looking for all the world like he was perfectly content with the arrangement. Hao smiled and turned his back to him closing his eyes. Yoh mirrored him. Almost instantly they were both asleep.

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Short I know, so I'm only going for five reviews to post next chapter. Five's a nice round number... 


	7. Ch6:Mornings Light

Warnings: **yaoi, twincest, violence, swearing, ooc**

Disclaimer: Has anyone actually sued someone else for not putting one up? I mean really. If I owned it, I'd get every yaoi fangirl I could find and we'd be the writing/art team for the series. And Hao probably end up winning. sigh 'Tis not to be.

A/N: Thanks for all the wonderful reviews! But I'm afraid I need to respond to two in particular.

_The Professor: _The oocness, well, it is a fanfiction, and it is alternate universe. Expieriances shape personality, ergo no, they are absolutely not in character. at all. I do try to put some of their personality that I see from the manga in where I can. And about Anna, I'll let you in on a secret, I'm not so big on her. Therefore, she has a really small part in this fic. **But** I'd like to truly thank you for you're critisism. It's made me rethink my writing and I hope I'll do better in later chapters to write up to the level you expect of me.  
**tati1:** Yoh and Hao have the same parents. I can't tell you how that works without spoiling it so you'll just have to read **: p **thanks for your review!

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Ch. 6: Morning's Light 

Hao awoke first the next morning surprisingly early. The first thing he did was look over at Yoh who was still sleeping soundly next to him, his back to the fire shaman. The morning light hadn't gotten to him yet and Hao decided to let him be for awhile longer. Yoh moved in his sleep revealing his arm and most of his chest. As Hao looked closer he saw dozens of nearly invisible scars criss-crossing Yoh's skin. Only a few were really noticeable.

Of these, one about the size of a coin on Yoh's upper arm interested Hao, he couldn't recall how Yoh had gotten it. Gingerly, so as not to wake the other shaman, Hao brushed the tips of his fingers over the rough skin.

Hao experienced a violent pulling sensation that seemed to grab hold of his mind, not his body, and suddenly he was looking out through new eyes.

He was standing in a strange place, it was dark but he thought it was an alley. Only the distant light of a street lamp gave any illumination. Before him stood a dim figure, a man Hao thought.

Before he could even begin to form the question of what was going on the person before him lifted a gun. Its tip glowed with furioku for a moment and he fired. Hao automatically dodged the shot but not consciously. It was like he was following a preordained script of movement.

With out warning another shot was fired, one he couldn't dodge fully. It hit his arm, only nicking the skin thankfully. Still, it hurt like _hell_. Hao had never been shot before; he did not find the experience pleasant in any way.

"Now I have you," the man said moving towards him where he knelt on the ground clutching his wounded arm.

"Lord Yoh!" Amidamaru yelled.

_Yoh?_ Hao had time to think before he found himself back inside his own room. Yoh was still asleep, Hao had pulled his hand away, and he didn't remember doing it.

Yoh shifted momentarily but stayed in the same position. Hao was relieved; he didn't need Yoh to know he'd accidentally sifted through his memories…

But Yoh wasn't asleep and hadn't been for a long time. He just didn't really know why he was doing this. And then he felt Hao touch his scar and go perfectly still for the longest time. What the heck was he doing? The fire shaman broke away gasping and Yoh was about to ask what was wrong when he felt something. Unlike most shaman, whose sensing range was limited, Yoh had trained himself to expand his ability to sense other shaman to his limits and beyond, so by now it was a little over three miles in all directions. And what he was sensing now, just on the edge of his perception, was the one thing he dreaded most; X-Laws. (bum bum bum!)

He froze and pulled in all his furioku. Maybe they hadn't sensed him…no, they were too close, they had to have. And now they'd come towards him, he'd have to leave yet another town.

But the furioku didn't come any closer, no, it actually left. _What?_ Though Yoh was relieved he couldn't help but wonder at his fantastic luck. He'd leave tonight anyway, just to be on the safe side...

* * *

"Where is he?" raged Marcus, leader of the X-Laws. His subordinates looked around evasively. Ever since they'd lost (chick outlaws name) the usually calm and collected shaman hadn't been the same. They'd all been hit hard when they learned of her death but none took it as badly as Marcus. 

"We'll find him," their newest recruit, a young teen with green hair said calmly. Marcus looked at him sharply but nodded, at least making an attempt to calm down.

"It's that enormous mana masking his," one of them said. The others nodded. For some time now they'd been sensing a powerful amount of furioku coming from the direction they'd last spotted Asakura.

"He must have used it to his advantage and gone a different direction," another said. Marcus nodded.

"How far is the closest town?" he asked. The masked one consulted his map.

"Only about eight miles, sir," he said. Marcus looked thoughtful.

"We'll look for him there then," he decided, "Now move out!"

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A/N: yeah, it's short. Sorry. Next update should come soon though! 


	8. Ch7:Questions

A/N: I'm missing four words! I have no idea where, but my word count said I had 2509 and said I have 2505! What the crap? So if you see any place where a word seems like it's missing, please let me know. Oh, and if you see any other mistakes go ahead and tell me. I proofread these myself so...yeah. hehehe. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own shaman king, but I own and envy figurine who was my muse for this chapter.

Warnings: eventual **yaoi **which means **twincest **because Hao and Yoh are **brothers** so please don't flame. Also **swearing, violence, **and anything like that.

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Chapter 7: Questions

They were downstairs in Hao's kitchen scrounging for food. Hao didn't have any oranges so orange juice was the next best thing. He was at the stove making pancakes, Yoh was sort of leaning on the counter opposite him watching. It was an interesting process and Yoh tried to memorize exactly what Hao was doing. That's probably why he didn't at first hear Hao calling him.

"Yoh? Yoh? Yoh!"

"Huh?" Yoh asked sort of spacey.

"I said, why are the X-Laws after you?" the long haired teen said again.

"Because I'm evil," Yoh said. The smile on his face didn't match the words.

"No you're not," Hao rolled his eyes.

"How would you know? You barely know me," Yoh said.

"Simple, I know everything about you," Hao said confidently. "I have been dreaming about you my whole life." He stopped and grimaced. "That sounded like a really bad pick-up line, but I'm not sure how I can phrase it in a less corny way."

Yoh laughed at him. "I'm not sure if I really believe you on that one," he said. "It's just a little surreal."

"And being able to see ghosts isn't?"

Yoh rolled his eyes. "I don't know, I can't imagine what it's like to _not_ see them."

"Touché."

They remained silent for awhile after that, neither really knowing what to say.

"How did you come to live here?" Yoh asked abruptly. Hao was startled for a minute then recovered.

"I was adopted by the Rose's."

"What happened to your family?" Yoh asked.

"I don't know, I was told my parents dropped me off at the orphanage when I was just a baby, so I don't know anything about them, except they left me a necklace with a key on it." As soon as he said the last he could have hit himself. Why had he told Yoh that? No one knew about the key, not even his adopted family! And like Yoh even cared anyway about some stupid sob story like that.

But Yoh was intrigued. He'd had his suspicions about Hao before, and this might very well confirm them. "Could I see the necklace?" he asked. Hao looked startled.

"Um, sure. I guess…I'll be right back." Hao left Yoh in the kitchen and went up to his room. In the way back of the closet in a shoe box were his most prized possessions that he'd been collecting for as long as he could remember. Some of them were stupid, he thought now. A top he'd gotten at the orphanage, a few pretty rocks, a feather, and the necklace. This he removed and returned the box to its hiding place and went back downstairs.

Yoh was still in the kitchen but now he had something in his hands. Wordlessly, Hao handed him his necklace.

Yoh studied the necklace for a moment. It was a small gold chain exactly like his own, only hanging from it was a tiny golden key. It seemed the right size. He'd taken his own necklace off and held the box, carefully inserting the key into the lock. With a 'click' the key turned and the locket opened. Out fell a slip of paper but Yoh ignored that. He was too caught up in the small portrait inside the locket.

It was his family, all of them. His mother and father smiled up at him, each one holding an identical baby. Yoh had no idea when the picture had been taken; it must have been before the X-Laws had started hunting them. With shaking hands he removed the picture to see if anything was written on the back. In small neat ink that Yoh thought must have been his mothers were all their names in the order they appeared in the picture.

His suspicions were confirmed; Hao was his twin brother. He looked at the fire shaman to see Hao had picked up the slip of paper that had fallen out. Yoh quickly put the picture back in place as Hao studied the slip.

"This doesn't make any sense," he said.

"What doesn't?" Yoh asked.

"It's just a bunch of numbers, what does it mean?"

"What?"

"Take a look." Hao handed him the slip of paper. Yoh studied it for a moment, but he couldn't make heads or tails of it either. All it had on it was a series of numbers. 88673, 88674. What the hell?

He folded the paper back up and shoved it in his pocket. He tried to think of how he could find out what it meant when Hao suddenly swore.

"What? Did you think of something?" he asked but Hao dashed away back to the stove.

"Damnit…" the fire shaman muttered, "I burnt the pancakes."

Yoh couldn't help but smile at him, for some reason finding Hao's antics funny. The other shaman made him feel as close to relaxed as he'd been in a long time. He continued to smile lazily as Hao served them both the pancakes, (taking the really burnt ones for himself) even as he was thinking how he was going to leave.

* * *

Hao decided he didn't really like Yoh's fake relaxed smile. It had fooled him before but now he realized it was just a mask to hide what the shaman was really thinking. And right now he was thinking of leaving.

Hao knew Yoh's life story, or almost all of it. He knew Yoh could only afford to stay in one spot for a few weeks at most. He'd traveled all over, and while Hao hadn't really paid attention to the people or the places it was always the same. Just as Yoh made friends, which he did quite easily with his likeable manner, he would leave. Very few of the people he'd met did he ever see again.

Hao did not want to be one of those people.

He knew he and Yoh had a connection. It was strange, since he'd only known the teen for a couple of days. _No, I've known him all my life_ he corrected himself. He'd only known that it was Yoh a couple of days ago. It was all so confusing. He mentally shook his head, it didn't matter. He wasn't letting Yoh go. The thought of never seeing Yoh again was unacceptable Hao decided.

He watched the teen wolf down his food. Surprisingly his manners weren't half bad for being on his own. Amidamaru must have taught him.

As if sensing Hao was watching him, Yoh slowed down.

"Uh, is it alright with your parents that I'm here?" he asked nervously.

"They're out of town until tomorrow," Hao shrugged.

"Oh."

The rest of the meal was finished in silence and Yoh helped him clean up, despite Hao's protests that he was a guest.

They spent most of the day trying to come up with what the numbers meant. Hao thought it was some kind of code and so tried several different methods to try to crack it. Around noon as they were surfing the web looking for clues, Yoh gave up.

"This is getting us nowhere, Hao," he said.

"I know," the other shaman said, albeit grudgingly. He so hated problems he couldn't solve.

"Why don't we go outside for awhile?" Hao perked up immediately.

"To train?" Yoh rolled his eyes. Did this guy ever quit? Shouldn't he still be sore from yesterday? "I promise not to hurt your back anymore," Hao said.

"You're the one who's gonna get hurt," Yoh challenged grinning.

"We'll see about that," Hao said with an identical smile.

* * *

_Okay, maybe Yoh was right_ Hao thought as he lay on the ground panting. Yoh had forgone the spiritual training for more physical education, this time a basic instruction in sword arts. It really wasn't fair, Yoh had been taught by one of the greatest samurai in history his entire life. Of course Hao was outmatched, though he did put up a good fight.

"Are you okay?" Yoh asked concerned. Hao thought about it for a minute. Other than his entire body aching and bruised, he was good.

"Peachy," he groaned sitting up. His hands still stung from Yoh slapping the stick he'd been using in place of a sword out of them.

"Great. I think you've had enough for one day," Yoh smiled. "It's sort of getting late."

Hao looked around and had to agree. He was by no means an expert at telling time without a clock, but by the position of the sun, it looked like they only had an hour or two before sundown. And they'd started a little after noon.

"Shall we head back?" Yoh asked brightly.

_One of these days…_ Hao thought. But he got up, painfully, and followed Yoh. The spirit of fire had perched itself on Yoh's shoulder again and was chirping happily to the teen. Yoh probably had no idea what it was saying, so just kept nodding. Hao smiled as Yoh agreed that the trees were lovely and water could be a jerk. Amidamaru lingered with them, ever keeping a look out for danger.

They stayed up for awhile once they'd gotten back to Hao's; there was a late night horror movie on. They finally had enough and Hao led the way to his room, totally ignoring Yoh's protests that he could sleep on the couch.

"We need to change your bandages before we turn in, and it's easier if you just bunk with me than have to walk all the way back downstairs. Plus I can lend you a pair of my pajamas for tonight."

Yoh was going to protest but Amidamaru, who'd been in his memorial tablet until then, gave Yoh a look that kept him quiet.

"You can take a shower if you want, too," Hao added.

"Uh…" Yoh really needed to get clean but wasn't sure he knew how to work a shower properly. Hao seemed to read his mind.

"I'll show you how to adjust the water and grab you some towels," he said.

"Okay," Yoh agreed gratefully. He was really grateful moments later as he stood under the warm water. Hao had remained for a few moments to be sure the water wasn't too hot.

"Geez," he said when he'd tested the temperature Yoh had chosen. "Don't you want it any warmer than that?" Yoh had shaken his head and Hao had left the bathroom, muttering something about crazy polar bear swimmers. Yoh refrained from pointing out he was used to washing himself in rivers and streams he came across. Plus he figured Hao's aversion to cold had something to do with the spirit of fire's influence.

Yoh scrubbed his hair really well, then his body, and reluctantly got out of the water. Wrapping a towel around his waist he opened the door to Hao's room. The other teen was waiting for him with the weird ointment from earlier and fresh bandages. The wound on his back still throbbed occasionally, but had gotten a lot easier to bear.

"Um, Hao?" he asked when the other boy didn't say anything. Hao startled and shook his head once. Was he blushing? Mentally shaking his own head Yoh took a seat on the bed. Hao carefully unwrapped the bandages from his back, Yoh bit his tongue when they stuck.

"Sorry," Hao offered when he was done. "It looks a lot better, how do you feel?"

"It hurts a lot less," Yoh said.

"Good." Hao smeared a glob of the salve on the wound, spreading it evenly over the heated skin. Then he re-taped clean bandages on it.

"Thanks," Yoh said once he was done. Hao stood up and took the bandages and salve away. When he came back he handed Yoh a baggy t-shirt and shorts for pajamas. They changed quickly Hao climbed into the bed. Yoh, after a moment of hesitation, joined him.

* * *

A clock chimed somewhere in the house. Yoh had waited until Hao drifted off to get up. Amidamaru was inside his tablet, Yoh had let him know earlier that it was time to leave. His backpack was on the floor already. Silently, he changed out of the clothes Hao had leant him folded them neatly on the end of the bed.

"I'm sorry," Yoh whispered turning away from the sleeping form of Hao. He opened the window silently. This was for the best he kept telling himself. Leaving had never been this hard before though.

"Yoh?"

Yoh froze at the sound of Hao's voice.

"Where are you going?"

"Nowhere, go back to sleep," Yoh answered not turning around. He heard the bed creak as Hao sat up.

"You're leaving." It wasn't a question. Yoh saw no reason to try and deny it.

"Yes."

Yoh turned around against his better judgment. He didn't need to see the hurt in yet another person's eyes as he left So instead of looking at Hao he looked at the floor. The bed creaked again and bare feet sounded against the hard wood floor. At the sound of a drawer opening Yoh looked up in time to see Hao slip a loose t-shirt over his bare chest. He watched mesmerized as the fire shaman changed into a pair of baggy jeans with big pockets and tied his long hair back in a ponytail. Yoh finally got a hold of his voice when Hao walked over to his closet and pulled out a dark backpack and went back to the dresser.

"What are you doing?"

Hao slipped in a shirt, pants, and some boxers before answering, "Going with you."

"What?!"

"Say it louder, I'm not sure if the towns awake yet."

"You can't come with me! What about your family?" Yoh exclaimed taking Hao's advice and keeping his voice low.

"They're not my family."

"I can't let you throw away your life for this! And yes they are."

"They're not, Yoh," Hao repeated slowly. "Or did you not see the fact that I look nothing like them?"

"It's not how you look that makes you family." Yoh said stubbornly.

"Hardly. As far as I'm concerned I don't have any family, except you."

"Me?"

"Do you act this dense just to annoy me? Think about it. We have the same last name, look exactly alike, at the least we're cousins." Hao listed exasperated.

"Oh." Yoh thought about that as Hao continued to put a few things from around his room in his bag. He was hoping Hao hadn't figured that out. _Just how stupid are you?_ said a voice in the back of his mind.

"Don't you want to be a regular kid with a nice life?" he asked. Hao laughed.

"I'm a shaman, Yoh, I'm not meant for a 'regular' life."

Yoh finally just gave up. Hao wasn't going to budge on the matter and he was tired of all of it. As much as he didn't want to drag Hao into this it was sort of nice to have someone to share all this with. And wasn't his mantra "It'll work out"?


	9. Ch8:On the Road Again

A/N: Hey whatsup? I got a new user name! If this causes major problems I'm so sorry. My bad...So this update was directly influenced by the fact that I am out of fanfics to read! Hard to believe, but I just cleaned out the update alerts in my email folder. So damn...I guess I'll have to write some. Oh! and I seriously considered putting in a lemon at the end between Horo and Ren but I wasn't sure so if you guys want one let me know, I can totally go back and put on in if I get enough people.

Warning: Swearing, violence, yaoi, twincest, mmm...twincest. I mean, what? IF YOU DON'T LIKE ANY OF THIS WHY ARE YOU HERE? SHOO! NO FLAMING!

Disclaimer: I should own it! Hao and I are the same height! mmm...Hao...

* * *

Chapter 8: On the Road Again

It was kind of like camping Hao decided. If you subtracted the ghosts, the endless walking through forests and along highways, and the fact that there was an evil organization bent on their destruction on their trail.

Yep. Just like camping.

Of course Hao had never been camping so he had nothing to compare it to. It had been three days since they'd left town. Yoh had confirmed to him the first day that they were indeed biological twin brothers. Hao thought he might have been a little disappointed by his lack of reaction. Well, it was information he'd already gathered for himself. And it really didn't matter to him where his feelings were concerned. Yes it was true, Hao admitted to himself, he had a crush on Yoh. He glanced at the other shaman just in time to see him push back a lock of his brown hair from his eyes.

Considering it was just about the sexiest thing he'd ever seen anyone do, Hao had to conclude that possibly maybe he had more than just a crush.

How about infatuation? Yeah, that sounded better.

Was it totally narcissistic of him to fall for someone who looked almost exactly like him? But it wasn't just the fact that Yoh was drop dead sexy. It was the force of personality, the easy demeanor hid almost completely a quick mind and depth of strength Hao admired. It took a really strong person to survive on their own almost their entire life after all. And that's basically what Yoh had done. Amidamaru had helped surely, but he was more like a big brother, and who listened to their big brother? Not Yoh, if he didn't like what the ghost had to say, he was way too independent for that. That was one of the things Hao loved most about him.

Wait a second, loved? Hao pulled back from the thought mentally, looked it up and down, and banished it. He couldn't be in love with Yoh, he'd just met him. But still, he did like him a lot. Was this just a twin thing? Or a normal brother thing? Since he'd grown up with neither he wasn't really sure. Still, he felt like this went a lot deeper than the normal bond between twins.

He may have been lost in his own thoughts, but Yoh wasn't speaking either. Which bothered Hao. In fact, Yoh almost never started a conversation, at least not with Hao. He caulked it up to lack of human interaction, but still. If there were two things Hao didn't like, it was prolonged periods of awkward silence and being ignored. And right now it seemed like he was being treated to both.

Not standing the silence any more Hao spoke.

"What are you thinking?"

Yoh startled and Hao laughed, making the other pout. _Cute_ Hao thought and smiled.

"Nothing really," Yoh answered.

"Oh come on, you have to be thinking about something," Hao prodded trying to start a conversation.

Yoh looked up at the sky and smiled wistfully. "I guess I was thinking about the clouds. They're cool to watch, you know?" Hao looked up too.

"Yeah."

And it was true, Hao did like clouds. He liked most things having to do with nature. He supposed this might have been influenced by the spirit of fire.

As if the thought summoned him, the toddler sized spirit hopped on Hao's shoulder. He had been gliding along beside them up to this point.

"Did the spirit of fire get bigger?" Yoh asked studying the spirit. Hao glanced at him, then at his spirit.

"I don't know. Now that you mention it, maybe."

"Wasn't he always that size?" Hao thought back and shook his head.

"No, when I was really little he was smaller," he answered.

"Maybe he grows as your strength increases.

"That might be it…"

"I've never heard of a ghost aging," Amidamaru said.

"No _human_ ghosts," Yoh corrected. "The spirit of fire is a spirit, remember? He was never human to begin with."

"He acts like a human child," Amidamaru argued.

"I don't think so."

The two debated back and forth for a long while, totally forgetting Hao's presence it seemed. He tried to break into the conversation a few times but was cut out, accidentally he was sure. It wasn't as if he could hope to worm his way in Yoh's affections just like that. Still, he couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy that the samurai spirit and his twin shared.

* * *

"Where are we going exactly?" Hao asked two days later. They were walking along a highway. Hao had finally convinced Yoh after day two that the X-Laws weren't coming after them and they could walk along the highway for a extended period of time. Not that he didn't like pushing past thorny branches and swatting at insects all day long. Nope. Not at all.

It was a long stretch of road, mostly deserted except for the random car that whizzed by.

"Tokyo," Yoh answered his question.

"Why?"

"That's where my friend lives. Hopefully he can help us figure out what these numbers mean."

"Oh," Hao shrugged.

"That's it? Just 'oh'?" Yoh said mildly but Hao could detect the upset undertones. Time for another argument. You know what they say, the more you fight the more… Hao shut _that_ thought down and paid attention to his twin.

"What do you want me to say? It's your friend, I trust you, and therefore I trust them."

"That kind of attitude will get you killed," Yoh warned.

"I think you need to lighten up, just a little bit."

"And I think you need to take the situation more seriously."

"Right, right." Yoh shot him a look and Hao held up his hands in defense. "Hey, I'm agreeing with you."

"Sure," was all Yoh said. Hao let it go. He'd learned that it was damn near impossible to win an argument with Yoh. It might have ticked Hao off had he not been used to dealing with Ren's temper.

Thinking of Ren reminded him of his friends. All two of them. Ren and Horo was the only thing he regretted leaving behind. But even that didn't make him sad, he had the feeling he'd see them again. Nine times out of ten over the years he'd realized that he should trust his instincts. He wondered if it was a shaman thing or something else.

"That reminds me," Yoh said a moment later glancing at Hao. "We need to continue your training. No offense but if you can't beat me then you have no chance against the X-Laws."

"Really?" Hao asked surprised. So far Yoh was the strongest shaman he'd ever met, he had no idea that the X-Laws were so powerful. For some reason the thought didn't scare him as much as he thought it should.

Yoh nodded then grinned at him good naturedly. "I have to warn you, I'm not going to go easy on you." Hao answered him with a smirk of his own.

"I'd expect no less."

True to his word, when they stopped for the night, Yoh found two branches that he shaped into rudimentary swords and taught Hao some basic sword stances, then proceeded to beat the crap out of the less than skilled shaman. Amidamaru watched over their spar, giving Hao seemingly non-stop directions that more distracted him than helped at times.

By the time Yoh thought he'd had enough Hao was bruised and exhausted. He downed half a bottle of water and practically fell on the ground by the fire, going to sleep instantly. He missed entirely the smile Yoh gave him before he leaned against the nearest tree to keep watch.

* * *

"So you have no idea where he is now?" the officer asked. Horo glanced at Ren once then looked the detective in the eye as he answered.

"No, I have no idea where he would have gone."

The detective, a tall dark haired man who had eyes that seemed to have the ability to see right through any and all lies, stared into Horo's equally dark ones a moment longer before he nodded.

"Alright then, thank you for your time boys, I'll be in touch if you remember anything significant." With that he got up and Horo's mother showed him out. Ren and Horo didn't stay in the living room, as soon as the adults left the room they got up and left out the back door. In about ten minutes they were by the river in a secret spot only they –and Hao- knew about. By then Horo was near to bursting with his pent up silence.

"Why would he just leave?! He didn't even say good-bye or anything! And Yoh seemed like such a nice kid! Why would Hao leave with him just like that? And why don't we say anything about Yoh to the officers? They're sure as hell gonna find out what's up when they question Anna anyway! What-"

Without any warning Ren's lips pressed against his boyfriends in a heated kiss that left the blue-haired one giddy. After Ren pulled away he stood for a few seconds with a bemused look on his face. When he noticed Ren's superior smirk he shook his head and conjured a glare to aim at the Chinese shaman. "You did that to distract me!" he accused.

"It worked didn't it?" Ren pointed out. Horo pouted but remained silent. He gave a sigh and sat heavily on the ground where Ren joined him. He leaned his head on Ren's shoulder and their fingers entwined.

"So why didn't we tell that guy about Yoh?" Horo asked.

"Horo, do you honestly thing Yoh would be the kind of person who would coerce Hao into going with him against his will?"

"How should I know? We only met the guy once…" Horo mumbled. Ren sighed.

"And you liked him, don't lie." Horo frowned, smiled, then frowned again.

"Yeah. Damnit, I did. Now I'm not so sure though…"

"Oh stop it. Like it or not Yoh is connected to Hao somehow. Whatever it is, it's between them and none of our business. We're Hao's friends not his babysitters."

"I guess you're right…"

"I'm always right."

Horo rolled his eyes at his boyfriend's arrogance, lifting his head off his shoulder. "I'm just worried, you know?" he said softly. Ren's golden eyes softened at Horo's obvious distress. He wrapped his arm around the Ainu's shoulders comfortingly.

"Don't worry, we'll see them again someday."

"How do you know?" Horo asked dejectedly.

"I'm a shaman, remember? Communication with the spirit world and whatnot. I'm just that good." Horo smacked Ren's arm but laughed despite himself, and since that was what Ren was going for he didn't mind being hit. Cheered up, Horo snuggled back into Ren's arms and they leaned back on the ground to watch the sky.


	10. Ch9:Confusion to the Enemy

A/N: Hey! I'm alive after all. hehehe...so anyway. No real explanation for not updating, just had a lot of trouble writing this chapter. Finally had one review too many making me feel guilty about not updating so I finally sat down and vowed to not go to bed until I'd posted this. Forgive any mistakes, I'll probably check it over later...

Disclaimer: I don't own it, but I do own Shaman King volume 17 which features Hao at a hotspring. Mmm...naked Hao.

Warnings: The usual, **yaoi, twincest, swearing. **XP

* * *

"Have you found anything yet?" Marco asked. The man before him, whose name escaped Marco at the moment, gulped but shook his head. Marco frowned. "Nothing?"

"We can't track his mana so we've had to rely on other methods. We're checking the woods where Marie went missing but so far we haven't had any luck. There is a town just on the outskirts of the area we've yet to investigate, sir."

"Hmmm…" Marco thought. "Where could he be hiding...?" he murmured almost to himself. He remained silent a moment before apparently reaching a decision. "Lyserg!" he barked.

A feminine boy with green hair and eyes stepped towards his leader. "Yes sir?"

"I want you to go to this town and see what you can find. The rest of us will continue the search elsewhere," Marco ordered. The boy bowed his head in submission.

"Yes sir."

* * *

Despite being in the X-Laws organization his whole life this was the first time Lyserg had gone on a mission on his own. In fact, this was the first real mission he'd ever been on, most of the time he stayed by Lady Jeanne's side and helped to recruit new members.

He knew this was an important task for him. There hadn't been a sign of Hao for days now and the other X-Laws were getting restless. They'd yet to hear from Marie who'd been on the evil one's trail and many feared they never would.

As it were, they'd been able to track Marie's path to a broad location which they were now scoping out. Lyserg had been sent into the town that fell just on the outskirts of the vicinity they were searching to see if Hao had been spotted there.

He got into town in the afternoon just as school was getting out so it didn't look suspicious for him to be wandering around. It wouldn't have mattered in a bigger city but this place was so small that an adolescent walking about during school hours would have attracted attention.

As it was he still stuck out like a sore thumb, what with his green hair and white uniform. The odd looks he kept getting from the townsfolk made him shy about approaching. Mentally he scolded himself, how was he going to get information if he didn't talk to anyone?

Mustering himself he promised that the next person he came across he would talk to. Lo and behold not ten seconds later a girl looking to be about his age with blonde hair and dark eyes walked towards him. He sighed in relief that it wasn't an adult and addressed her.

"Uh, excuse me miss?"

She stopped on the sidewalk. "Need directions?" she asked.

"No, but I do need help. I'm looking for someone actually, and I was hoping you might have seen him pass through here."

"Okay, got a picture?"

Lyserg smiled and reached into his pocket taking out the clearest shot they had of Hao, taken from a security camera at some convenience store months ago.

"That's a picture of Hao!" she gasped glancing at it. Lyserg's heart jumped. "His hair's shorter but that's definitely him." She looked from the picture to Lyserg studying his uniform especially. "You're not from around here. Are you with the police?"

"Yes, a special investigative branch," Lyserg lied easily. Most people seemed to accept this story from the X-Laws; he'd heard his colleagues use the cover plenty of times. "Can you tell me where he is?"

The girl shook her head. "He went missing a couple days ago, the police say he ran away from home. It was weird and really sudden."

Lyserg's mind was racing trying to make sense of what the girl was telling him. "Missing? Home?" he stammered. She looked at him confused and handed back the picture. "He lives around here?" Lyserg finally managed to ask.

"Yeah," she said, "his house is just a few blocks away."

"Can you tell me the address please?" Lyserg asked. She looked suspicious for a moment but Lyserg, knowing how important this was, faced her with the desperation he felt evident on his face. The suspicious look disappeared and she nodded.

"But first, who are you? Are you a friend of Hao's?"

"My name's Lyserg," he answered avoiding the other question. "It's complicated but it's very important that I find Hao."

"Sure," the girl said. "I'm one of his friends, Anna."

Lyserg immediately went on guard at the girl's admission but she didn't seem to notice. And she wasn't even a shaman, didn't Hao detest humans? Something wasn't adding up here and Lyserg was determined to find out all he could and report back to Marco as soon as possible.

Putting on his most sincere face he took out a notebook from one of the pockets of his uniform and started taking notes. "If you please, could you tell me all you know about Hao and the day he went missing?"

* * *

"Marco, sir, one of our scouts just returned to us."

"Send him in," Marco ordered absently. He returned to the map he was studying as the underling ran out. The man returned momentarily, another X-Law following behind him. Marco looked up from the papers before him and adjusted his glasses.

"Your name?" he asked the newcomer, a shorter man with dark hair and eyes set off by his white uniform. Marco guessed him to be in his thirties with a sense of nervousness about him. He looked around skittishly as if he expected someone to jump out at him at any moment.

"J-James, sir," he said.

"And what news do you bring?" Marco asked impatiently.

"A few days ago I came across Hao," he said. Marco froze and leaned forward.

"And you just now reported this?" Marco asked coldly. James gulped.

"My-my cell phone was out of range, I reported in as soon as I could. I'm not even assigned to tracking Hao, I'm only a scout! But he was just…there, I practically stumbled onto him! And it was strange, I don't think he sensed me coming and he didn't act like he had any idea who or what I was."

Marco pondered for a moment silently then nodded for the man to continue.

"At first I thought he let me get away, but he didn't put up much of a fight. I was able to incapacitate him, he was knocked out when I left."

"You didn't finish him off?" Marco demanded. James shook his head in terror.

"I ran for my life. Like I said, I didn't realize until after…he didn't even come after me! And there was something else…"

"What?"

"All the pictures and description of him say he has short brown hair and his spirit ally is a samurai's ghost, but his hair was much longer and the spirit he was with…it looked like an elemental."

"What element?" Marco asked startled. Could it be…?

"The Spirit of Fire."

* * *

Lyserg was confused, to say the least.. Anna insisted that when she'd seen Hao the last time first his hair had been short and then when she'd seen him later that day had been long again. After talking to the her he'd gone to speak to Hao's family. Yes, family, an older couple, who said that they'd adopted the shaman as a baby and raised him. Lyserg knew for a fact that Hao had been raised with his parents on the run until the age of four. That was when the X-Laws had finally managed to kill the evildoers. Only Hao had managed to escape and had been on the run ever since. And not only that, no one else in Hao's 'family' was a shaman and didn't seem to know he was. How was any of this possible?

Questioning his parents had taken only an hour and other than the startling information he hadn't learned much else. The couple, Mr. and Mrs. Lee, had been visiting friends in the next town over leaving Hao home alone for about two days. When they'd returned he'd already disappeared. The last people to see him had been his friends, Ren and Horo who lived a few blocks away.

That's where Lyserg was headed now, to speak to these two. But first he was going to call Marco and tell him all he'd learned.

Taking out the cell phone he'd been outfitted with as part of his mission, he dialed he private number Marco had given him. It ran only twice before Marco picked up.

"What do you have?" his superior asked gruffly. Not wasting any time, Lyserg relayed all he'd learned. Marco was quiet during the whole explanation, which took Lyserg about ten minutes to get through.

"What does this mean?" he asked their leader when he finally finished.

Marco remained silent for a moment; Lyserg could hear only his breathing over the phone. "It means…that there are two Hao's."

* * *

Hao woke up the next day sorer than he'd ever been in his life. At least that's what he'd told Yoh as he asked him where the nearest stream happened to be. Yoh pointed the way and watched Hao go, the spirit of fire following its master.

Discreetly, when Hao was out of earshot he asked Amidamaru to go after and keep an eye on Hao.

"You'll be along shortly?" Amidamaru asked concern for his charge evident in his grey eyes. Yoh gave him an easy smile in return.

"I'll be fine," he assured him. Amidamaru nodded but lingered for another moment before floating off. Yoh went to work getting rid of any traces of their passing. It was slow work; he was meticulous in this after all better safe than dead. There was also his back which was still healing. It seemed to have finally closed over for good, the skin felt tight and itchy but he didn't dare scratch at it for fear of opening it again. Hao had brought along some of the salve he'd used before and that had helped.

Thinking of Hao he smiled then frowned, then settled for a semi-blank expression incase Hao or Amidamaru happened to come back. It was highly doubtful Hao would be the first one; it took _forever_ to wash his hair. Part of Yoh was annoyed that Hao was high maintenance in this area, but most of him was fascinated with the shiny mass. He caught himself wondering what it felt like to run his fingers through it to see if it was as soft as it looked. It should have been with how much Hao brushed it…

…What in the world was he thinking?! Yoh shook his head but couldn't seem to stop his thoughts of his twin. Maybe it was going most of his life without prolonged (live) human contact but Hao awakened in him the _strangest_ urges. Like wanting to touch his hair. And wanting to see that annoyed expression he got when he and Amidamaru left him out of conversations.

Amidamaru helped in this area actually. Yoh knew Amidamaru didn't actually _dislike_ Hao but he wasn't inclined to liking him either. Yoh at once felt bad about somehow using Amidamaru to his ends and not being able to help himself.

It was perfectly normal for him to think of Hao a lot, right? He was his first living traveling companion, not to mention his twin. So the fact that thinking of Hao filled his time and occasionally kept him awake was perfectly normal, right?

As Yoh tried to convince himself of this he followed Hao's (fairly obvious) trail towards the stream they'd camped near. He stopped dead in his tracks when he caught sight of the other boy.

The shaman had found a part of stream that was actually deep, coming to a little over his knees. He was nude crouched over in the water running his hand through his hair. In a single smooth motion he stood and flung his hair up and around his head out of his eyes and out of the way, leaving Yoh an uninhibited view of his front. It took Yoh a minute to digest what he was seeing. Smooth, pale skin covered a well-muscles yet thin frame. His hands were busy wringing out his hair left Yoh to see the defined muscles of his chest and stomach, lines leading down to-

Yoh looked up blushing. He met Hao's eyes despite the look his twin was giving him. And how were they twins again? Hao was so much better looking with eyes that were right now half-lidded with a lazy smirk to match. Not exactly sure why the expression quickened his pulse and heated his face even more, Yoh smiled at his brother. Yes brother. If he kept reminding himself of that maybe he'd make it though. Through _what_ he wasn't sure. As of right now, however, he was positive his feelings towards Hao were anything but normal.

* * *

The rest of the day was a little awkward for Yoh. Hao was enjoying his discomfort it seemed Yoh wasn't completely naïve, but he was pretty sure that whatever attraction he felt for Hao the other boy should have been freaking out about it. Instead he was acting like Yoh had given him the go-ahead and flirted outrageously with him and despite the fact Yoh found himself _liking_ the attention. Most of what Hao said went way over his head and he didn't want to ask Amidamaru anything knowing how the spirit's old world view sometimes made him uncomfortable. And while sometimes it was fun to poke at the ghost's comfort levels he got the feeling the conversation would be just as embarrassing from his point of view.

They made camp later than usual so it was nearly dark when the spirit of fire stared their campfire for them. In all honesty the spirit didn't need to start a fire as he produced warmth from his presence alone but the thing never stood still for very long. And it slightly offended Hao when you used the spirit of fire as a camp fire. Yoh supposed he would feel the same way if someone used Amidamaru like an object.

"Like Ren did with Bason," Hao said totally out of the blue.

"What?"

"Ren used to treat Bason like an object instead of a person. You said you'd be upset if someone used Amidamaru like that."

"I never said that…" Yoh said thinking hard. No, he hadn't said that out loud, he was positive.

"Yeah you did, just now."

"I was thinking it…" Yoh mumbled.

"What? That's impossible. You said it out loud; you just don't remember saying it."

"Well…"

"Come on, it's not like I'm a mind reader."

Yoh nodded smiling at his foolishness. Impossible, exactly…

* * *

I totally don't deserve it but review please? I want some feedback on this chapter 'cause I think it's a little off. Please tell me what you think!


	11. Ch10:Close Call

SK-LaF

Chapter 10: Close Call

* * *

Hao and Yoh were fighting again. Not verbally this time, combat training. They'd abandoned their swords and Yoh was teaching Hao some basic hand-to-hand fighting styles. So far it was not going well. On Hao's side, that is.

"Oof!" he grunted as Yoh for the third time in a row threw him to the ground and pinned him.

"You need to anticipate what I'm doing and react," Yoh chastised letting him up.

"Easier said than done," Hao muttered wondering where his ability to read Yoh's mind had suddenly gone. It came and went seemingly randomly and Hao wished he could control it. Yoh wouldn't be able to beat him so thoroughly _then_.

Hao was so lost in his thoughts he almost didn't notice when Yoh came at him again, aiming a punch at the side of his face that Hao miraculously blocked. He even dodged the leg Yoh kicked at him and thought he might actually be improving when Yoh's other fist caught him under his chin. Knocked off balance Hao stumbled back. Yoh pressed his advantage and tripped Hao the rest of the way with a leg wrapped around the back of Hao's knee.

"Ouch," Hao said lamely from his position on the ground but he smiled. Damn Yoh was good at this; you couldn't help but admire the teen's skills. _Among other things_ Hao thought as he looked up at Yoh breathing heavily above him. A bead of sweat dripped down the side of his face and Hao found himself wondering what it would be like to follow its trail with his tongue.

"That was a little better," Yoh said. He stood and leaned down to offer Hao a hand up. Hao couldn't help but smirk, remembering the time before when Yoh had done the exact same thing. _He doesn't learn…_ he thought reaching for Yoh's offered arm. Before the shorter haired teen could react Hao pulled him down jerking so hard that for a moment he was concerned about hurting Yoh's still healing back but dismissed the thought as Yoh fell on top of him seemingly without pain. Encouraged but still wary he flipped Yoh onto his back and carefully straddled him. He smiled down at his prisoner.

"You fell for it again," he smirked with their faces close. Yoh looked back at him with a totally blank expression and Hao let out a yelp when he abruptly found their positions reversed as Yoh flipped him onto his back and smirked down at him.

"I never fall for the same trick twice," he grinned. But Hao suddenly didn't really care all too much about what Yoh was saying as he was focused on Yoh's mouth inches from his own. Yoh had enough time to look puzzled at the lack of a remark from the pinned shaman when Hao closed the last few inches between them and covered Yoh's lips with his. For a moment it seemed like the entire world shifted and all that was left was the two of them. A feeling of utter rightness filled Hao, it was like a piece of himself he'd never known he was missing had fallen into place. He was about to deepen the kiss when Yoh tore their lips apart. Hao blinked in surprise, Yoh was just suddenly standing over him, taking step after step away from Hao. Dimly Hao realized his shoulders hurt from where Yoh had pushed himself up hard but most of his brain was trying to process the loss of contact. The feeling that'd he found a piece of himself was still there, only now the found piece was looking at him with a confused and scared expression that felt like a hole had been torn through him. He tried to cope with the shattered feeling even though he thought his heart might break at the look on Yoh's face.

"Yoh, wait-" he started but Yoh suddenly turned and took off through the trees. Hao rose to follow but a big hand on his shoulder stopped him. Amidamaru hovered behind him.

"Give him a moment and I will go and fetch him," the samurai said before Hao could even become flustered. Blushing and wondering how much the ghost had seen, he nodded weakly.

* * *

Yoh didn't know what to do so he ran. He was thankful that Hao didn't follow, or most of him was. The other part wished Hao had gone after him. There was an ache in his chest that he'd felt as soon as he'd ripped himself away from Hao. But more pressing that the ache was the confusion Yoh had little social experience but he knew for a fact that society frowned on incest. What had possessed Hao? Why hadn't Yoh pushed away sooner? Why had the kiss had to feel so _right_?

Around and around in his head the most essential thought circled: What would Amidamaru say?

The realization froze Yoh and he fell to the ground, skidding on the dry leaves as the momentum from his running carried him forward. His knees and back protested but Yoh was beyond physical discomfort so wrapped up was he in mental anguish. Amidamaru. His spirit ally, his guardian, his best friend. Would he be disgusted? Same sex coupling alone made the old fashioned samurai uncomfortable, what would he say to this? Would he be angry, disappointed, repulsed?

Would Amidamaru abandon him?

The thought sent cold dread through Yoh's mind. A small (but still larger than he was absolutely comfortable with) part of him said that if Amidamaru did leave Hao would still be with him. If possible Yoh felt worse from the thought. What was wrong with him? Amidamaru had raised him, trained him to defend himself, and had kept him alive when the X-Laws tracked them down. How could he even think he'd be okay if Amidamaru left him?

He was so wrapped up in his confusing thoughts he didn't notice the presence of the spirit when he came up behind him until Amidamaru softly spoke his name.

"Yoh?" he said again before the teen would face him.

"Amidamaru…" Yoh said softly, miserably. He squeezed his hands in the fabric of his jeans as the spirit knelt before him.

"Yoh…" the samurai answered worriedly when Yoh remained silent. "What is wrong?"

Yoh avoided his gaze. "I-I'm really confused."

"About Hao?" Amidamaru asked gently. He'd just started to trust the fire shaman and hated to think that he'd caused Yoh such distress. He had no idea what had happened between the two of them, he'd been inside his memorial tablet when he'd sensed Yoh's distress and appeared just as Yoh had run off into the woods. "Why? What are you confused about?"

"He…we, uh," the teen blushed and mumbled out, "…kissed." Amidamaru was surprised that he wasn't as surprised as he thought he was, if that made any sense. But then, he'd seen the way Yoh looked at Hao, even if Yoh wasn't aware of it himself, and he'd seen the way Hao looked back at Yoh. And while at first he'd been disgusted as the days went on he'd become resigned then expecting. And now…

It'd been hard on Yoh, their years of running. Amidamaru knew he was a poor substitute for human –_living_ – companionship. When Hao had joined them he'd had mixed feelings. Part of him was happy that Yoh had someone he could relate to, but also a little jealous at having to share Yoh's attention. For the longest time it had just he and Yoh and Hao's presence complicated their lives at the same time that it helped them. Hao could be pushy towards Yoh in ways that Amidamaru couldn't be, like when he physically forced Yoh to take breaks when the shaman pressed himself too hard. Amidamaru could only touch Yoh when Yoh allowed it. It had frustrated him at times, especially times like these when Yoh was bent on being stubborn and not taking care of himself. So he was grateful that Hao seemed able to sense somehow when Yoh had pushed himself to his limit and stop him.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…" Yoh whispered brokenly into the silence Amidamaru had left while he was thinking.

"There's nothing to be sorry for, Yoh," Amidamaru said soothingly. Yoh jumped at the sound of his voice, he'd expected the samurai to leave but when he looked up he saw the ghost kneeling in front of him.

"There is, and I'm sorry, it won't happen again-"

"I think Hao would be most disappointed if that's true, but if you are uncomfortable then he will understand."

Yoh stared in shock at guardian.

"But if you're afraid that I would be uncomfortable with your relationship…it's true that this is not something I will be accustomed to easily but I find I don't mind as long as you are happy."

With no effort Yoh made himself physical in the spirit world and hugged Amidamaru relieved that his guardian wasn't going to abandon him. Amidamaru embraced him back glad his master was not so conflicted any more.

"You should go talk to Hao," the ghost finally said pulling away. He wiped away a stray tear that had fallen down Yoh's cheek. The shaman smiled back at him.

"You're right, I probably worried him," he acknowledged rising. "You coming?" he asked when Amidamaru didn't immediately make to follow him.

Amidamaru shook his head. "This is something the two of you need to work out for yourselves."

For a split second Yoh looked scared by the prospect and Amidamaru almost laughed. But then he mustered and smiled again at the samurai. "You're right. You're always right."

"I wouldn't go that far," Amidamaru shrugged and they both laughed. "Go on now, before Hao burns down the forest looking for you," he made a shooing motion.

Yoh smiled once more and turned away heading back towards camp. Amidamaru smiled wistfully at his departure. He'd died before he'd ever even married so he had not left any children but he wondered if this was how parents felt when they were presented with evidence that their children were growing up.

* * *

Long story short: I fail at life. Lol. I swear to god I'm starting chapter 11 right meow...if you don't want to review that's cool with me.


	12. Chapter11:Can't Say No

A/N: I'm sorry that I suck at life, but this chapter gave me so many issues and I really just want to get it out because I loved writing the chapter after this and it's been done for a lot longer than this one. So this one sucks, just saying. As always, if you see something blatantly wrong feel free to point it out to me but other than that don't feel obligated to review.

SK-La

Chapter 11: Can't Say No

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"Yoh!" Hao looked so relieved when Yoh came back to their camp and Yoh immediately felt guilty for running away.

"Sorry," Yoh said before Hao could say anything. That didn't stop his twin from wrapping his arms around him and holding Yoh close. Closing his eyes in relief, Hao breathed in the scent of Yoh's hair while Yoh rested his head on Hao's shoulder and clung to him. The hole that had seemed to form in both their chests immediately filled in and they could both breathe easier.

"It's okay, I'm the one who should be sorry," Hao said. Yoh shook his head.

"No, it's not your fault. I'm just…" he bit his lip, "I'm, uh, new to this…and you're my brother."

"I get it," Hao said, "I do. I mean, you've probably never kissed a guy before, let alone your own brother but-"

"Uh…" Yoh looked away from him biting his lip a little harder now and blushing. That's when it clicked for Hao.

"Wait, are you saying you've never been kissed…?" Hao couldn't help grinning when Yoh nodded.

"You don't have to laugh at me," Yoh pouted.

"I'm not laughing, I swear! It's just…"

"What?"

Now it was Hao's turn to blush and mumble. "I guess…I'm glad I'm your first. I mean, I'd hate to have to kick someone's ass for stealing your first kiss before me."

"Or you're just worried about living up to whoever got my first kiss?" Yoh teased. He shrugged then and looked away. "No worries, it's not like I can tell the difference if you're a good kisser or not…" He glanced back at Hao and nearly gulped at the predatory look that had come over his twin. In a flash the fire shaman's face was inches away from Yoh's.

"That's no problem at all, I already know I'm an excellent kisser," Hao leered raising his eyebrows up and down. He laughed at the wide eyed look Yoh gave him in return. "Okay, I get it, we need to take this slow. I can do that."

"But-" Yoh bit his lip again.

"What?" Hao's eyes immediately softened and he cupped Yoh's face in his hand. "What is it?"

"Don't you think this might be…wrong? To feel this way about your own brother…"

"No," Hao said firmly. "I don't have all the answers but here's what I do know. I've never felt this way about anyone. We have a connection, why else would I have those dreams about you before I ever met you? And when I'm near you, it feels like a piece of me I didn't know was missing is filled in. Being your brother is just a small part of that. Can you honestly tell me you don't feel the same way?"

"…I can't," Yoh smiled shyly at Hao's grin.

"Good. And for the record, I don't care what anyone says about us. I love you." As he spoke the words Yoh's eyes widened. Sensing the imminent protest Hao grabbed his hand and held it like a life line. Before Yoh could speak he continued. "I know that you think that I can't possibly mean that but I already told you I've never felt this way about anyone," he asserted. He looked deep into Yoh's eyes, so like his own and yet so different having seen more horrors firsthand than Hao ever would, and tried to convey how serious he was. He knew that this wasn't wrong and deep down he knew Yoh knew it too.

"I've never felt this way either…" Yoh said. "I don't know if this is love for me, but I…" he felt his face turn red but managed to mumble out, "I liked it when you kissed me. And I kind of want you to do it again…"

"No need to tell me twice," Hao grinned and pressed his lips softly to Yoh's cheek before moving to his mouth the same way. Yoh responded easily to the kiss, like they were made for each other. It wasn't until Hao pressed his tongue against Yoh's lips that Yoh froze up and Hao remembered exactly how inexperienced he was.

"Ummm…" Yoh stammered blushing cutely.

"Shhh, it's okay. I'm going to do that again only this time open your mouth a little. If you don't like something just say so and we'll stop."

"Okay," Yoh said and closed his eyes as Hao's mouth went to his once again. Like before, Hao's tongue licked lightly along Yoh's closed lips but this time Yoh was ready and he opened his mouth a little. He jerked and almost pulled away again when he felt Hao's tongue move past his lips and into his mouth. It was the strangest thing he'd ever felt. Was this really what people did when they kissed? He'd only ever watched before, he hadn't known what kissing actually entailed.

As Hao's tongue danced around his mouth, exploring gently every place he could reach, something in Yoh started to respond. Feelings of pleasure spiked through him, his heart beat faster and his breathing sped a little. Tentatively, he moved his tongue against Hao's, though he could tell that the fire shaman was definitely the one in control of the kiss. With a little practice, Yoh thought, he might be able to get the hang of this.

They pulled away simultaneously, both a little out of breath from lack of oxygen. Hao smiled at the bemused expression on Yoh's face.

"So, still think I'm not a good kisser?" Hao grinned.

"I don't know, I might need a bit more convincing…" Yoh flirted and blushed at his own boldness.

"Well then, I guess I'll have to do my best to convince you then…" Hao trailed off as he moved closer and closer to Yoh's mouth. For some reason Yoh's heart started to beat faster than before.

"Uh-I-" Yoh stammered out only to be cut off by Hao's mouth capturing his own. It wasn't a bad way to be cut off, in Yoh's opinion, and he let Hao take the lead once again. He shuddered at the feel of Hao's tongue playing along his own, stroking him into responding tentatively at first then with more fervor. It was amazing and terrifying all at once. He kept wondering if he was doing it right, if Hao was enjoying himself as much as he was, if it was natural to feel like the world was tilting and falling perfectly into place all at the same time.

He couldn't help the little sounds he made in the back of his throat as Hao's lips sloped over his again and again. It sent heat coursing through him like he'd never experienced before and he began to feel weak in the knees. Hao might have sensed this or he might have felt the same way because he moved them from standing to kneel on the ground near the fire. Pulling away for a second, Hao grinned mischievously and pushed Yoh onto his back, climbing atop the startled teen.

"H-Hao?" Yoh managed to get out before Hao was on him again, the kiss that much more passionate now. At first Yoh felt a little strange, he was a guy after all, shouldn't he be the one on top? But then again, Hao was a guy too…but then Hao's lips moved to suck at his neck and all coherent thoughts left Yoh's brain probably because the blood was rushing to other more interesting places. Hao's hands roved from his shoulders, down his arms, and then up under his shirt to knead at the bare skin he found, all the while still sucking harshly at that spot right where Yoh's neck joined his shoulder. Yoh's breath was coming in harsher pants now and the noises that had only been in the back of his throat before became more vocal.

"God…" Hao gasped, his mouth coming away from Yoh's neck with a pop. His lips went to Yoh's again and Yoh welcomed it, meeting the roving tongue and bits of teeth pressing against his lips. Almost on their own, Yoh's arms went around Hao, mimicking the motion of Hao's hands still playing beneath his shirt. Hao's skin was warm and Yoh had the sudden desire to feel more of it, his hands ran up and down Hao's back, moving to his front where he could feel Hao's heartbeat against his hand. It was just as rapid as his own he was pleased to note.

Hao suddenly pulled away from Yoh, taking Yoh's hands from beneath is shirt and holding them in his own. For a few seconds Yoh wasn't sure what had happened, then suddenly he felt embarrassed thinking Hao had stopped because of him, because he wasn't good at this kind of thing.

"Hey," Hao said softly squeezing Yoh's hands and Yoh looked at him. "Look, I was really trying to control myself, but you're just so…" he laughed and actually blushed a bit. "I just don't want to rush this, I guess."

"Yeah," Yoh immediately agreed blushing furiously. He felt even more ashamed now by how quickly he'd let the pleasure go to his head. "Uh, sorry…" he said avoiding Hao's eyes again. Hao was having none of it and put his hand beneath Yoh's chin, forcing the teen to look at him again. He leaned in for a chaste kiss this time and Yoh felt better almost immediately.

"We should probably get some rest," Yoh said and Hao nodded. He let Yoh go and the teen sat up doing his best to brush leaves off of himself making Hao chuckle.

"Here," he said plucking a stray twig from Yoh's bang.

"Next time, you get to be the one laying on the ground," Yoh pouted.

"Fine by me," Hao grinned. "It's not like it'd be any different from when you're training me anyway." They both laughed.

Yoh got up and started to collect small pieces of wood to start a fire with. Hao also got up and helped by finding the larger pieces to stack on top.

"Hey, Spirit of Fire," he called out and heard an answering chirp from the forest far off to his left. A second later the spirit was by his side and Hao shook his head wondering if it was normal for spirits to have the ability to teleport like that. He made a mental note to ask Yoh about it sometime. "You mind?" he motioned to the pile of wood they had stacked up. He smirked as the little spirit chirped excitedly, as if the Spirit of Fire would say no to being allowed to set things on fire. In no time the campfire was going merrily and the spirit was off wandering again, chirping happily to itself and the woods in general. It was getting dark by this time and Hao and Yoh sat beside each other near the welcome warmth of the fire as it started to cool off. Hao couldn't decide what was more mesmerizing, the flames or the reflection of them dancing in Yoh's eyes. When he couldn't stand it anymore he leaned over and kissed Yoh sweetly. He felt Yoh smile into the kiss and when he pulled away his twin grinned at him.

"I was wondering what was taking you so long," he teased and leaned in for another kiss.

They managed to control themselves a little better this time, but more due to Hao's efforts than Yoh's. They ended up lying on the ground again though when they finally did manage to untangle themselves from each other.

They fell asleep like that, Yoh cuddling into Hao's chest with Hao's arms wrapped protectively around him. Yoh was the first one to drop off, Hao's body heat on his front and the warmth of the fire at his back proving a potent sedative for the teen who often had trouble falling asleep. Hao lay awake in the dark for a while watching the flames of the fire dance before his eyes.

When Hao awoke the next morning, it was to the sight of Yoh inches from his face studying him intently.

"Morning," Hao said with puzzled smile. "What are you looking at?"

"Morning," Yoh answered back in a distracted way. "I was just thinking about kissing."

"Okay…" Hao trailed off looking at his twin with a raised brow.

"I mean, I've seen it before, like when Ren and Horo did it in the graveyard that one time," he explained "I didn't know that's how people really kissed, you know, with their tongues an all." _It was weird, but I liked it._

Hao laughed. "Yeah, it is a little weird…"

"What?" Yoh asked.

"What? I was just agreeing with you that it's weird."

"I never said it was weird," Yoh protested and Hao gave him a quizzical look.

"You don't have to lie, I heard you," Hao trailed off at the blank look on Yoh's face.

"I'm not lying, I didn't say that out loud. I think you heard what I was thinking."

"I told you before, that's impossible, I can't read minds."

"I can't believe you can believe in ghosts but can't bring yourself to believe that there's such a thing as being able to read a person's mind."

"Okay, ghosts are easy to believe in since I grew up being able to _see_ them. I do believe that there are people who are telepathic; I just don't think I'm one of them. Maybe it's just a weird twin connection thing."

"Whatever," Yoh huffed. "Amidamaru, what do you think?" he asked the samurai who had just come floating out of his tablet when he heard the argument.

"I think we should get going, young master. The sooner we get to Master Manta's the sooner he'll be able to help you figure out what those numbers might mean," Amidamaru said sagely not allowing himself to be drawn into the disagreement. Hao felt the spirit of fire hop onto his back and chirp in agreement with the other spirit.

"Fine," Yoh huffed again seeming to accept the defeat. For now at least.


	13. Chapter 12: Agree to Disagree

Warnings: Death. Swearing. Yaoi, twincesty goodness, you know, the usual.

A/N: Um...so, look, a timely update! F'n weird...but anyway. Leave a review if you want but don't feel obligated. I suffer from this unholy fear of flames so every time I see a review alert in my inbox I have a mini heart attack. Just so you know...^-^;

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Chapter 12: Agree to Disagree

Hao wasn't so sure by the end of the week about his claim of not being a mind reader. Maybe it was just some kind of subconscious twin connection but it seemed to him that he could _hear_ what Yoh was going to say before he said it. And he always knew when Yoh was annoyed or flustered with him. (The latter happening much more often to his satisfaction.) He was even catching stray thoughts from Amidamaru which was totally crazy. How could you read a dead man's mind anyway?

However he was doing it, it was freaking him the hell out. Granted, once in awhile it was fun (like when he caught Yoh thinking about how he'd seen him bathing). But mostly it scared him. Especially with the way Amidamaru gave him a suspicious glare every time he displayed his uncanny ability. The spirit really had never warmed up to him.

He couldn't help that this ability had appeared shortly after he'd begun training with Yoh. Another thing he noted was that the spirit of fire seemed to be growing in size as Hao grew in strength. It wasn't very noticeable, just an inch of height the spirit hadn't had before so now when he stood next to Hao he reached his waist.

Also not very noticeable, at least not to Hao until Yoh had pointed it out to him, was his increase in his fighting skills. Hao only noticed that he wasn't walking around with so many bruises lately and he'd figured his skin was just getting used to the regular abuse but Yoh swore up and down that he was improving. He had even given Hao his pocket knife to carry 'just in case' as he said. They hadn't seen hide or hair of any X-Laws in a long time but that never stopped or even lessened Yoh's paranoia.

Hao thought Yoh was overly cautious. Despite the dreams he'd had of scenes from Yoh's life, despite that he knew intellectually that the X-Laws wanted Yoh dead for some reason, he could never quite put into reality what he saw in his subconscious. How could anyone want to hurt Yoh? It just didn't make any sense.

It wasn't long before he'd changed his mind.

It was almost comical, the expressions on the faces of the two men they'd stumbled across, or who'd stumbled across them more specifically. Utter terror. Confusion when they caught sight of Hao. It was almost funny but Hao saw the matching look of terror that flashed across Yoh's face when he saw the X-Laws, unmistakable in their white uniforms.

"You!" the first one shouted. Before the sound died Yoh had integrated with Amidamaru and was charging him. Their swords met before Hao had integrated with his spirit and went on the defense waiting for the other man to come at him. It didn't happen. The other man kept an eye on the battle before him, and Hao was confused until he saw that he'd drawn a gun.

Hao didn't think. The man was behind Yoh, the other shaman engaged in a sword fight with the first X-Law couldn't have even seen it coming. The one behind Yoh was pointing a gun at the shaman's back.

Hao didn't think. He ran for the man. In the back of his mind a clinical voice observed that he'd never make it in time, it was too far. Hao didn't listen. Time slowed as he sprinted towards the man, who was too intent on Yoh to even notice.

"Spirit of fire!" he yelled not really sure why. There was nothing the spirit could do, they were already integrated. At least that's what he thought. All of a sudden there was an orange flash all around him. It was gone in an instant and he was suddenly slamming into the man before he could even begin to comprehend what the hell had just happened.

The man's gun fired an evil green burst of furioku that thankfully didn't even get close to Yoh. It did however decimate a few trees. _That could have been Yoh_ Hao thought numbly as he and the man slammed to the ground. They grappled to be on top, the man winning inevitably due to his superior strength.

He pinned Hao beneath him. "Brat!" he yelled slapping Hao. Hao's vision went blurry for a moment as he tried to escape. But the man was sitting on him, holding his arms down.

"I think I'll kill your brother first," he snarled. Hao's eyes widened at that. The man moved intending to pin both of Hao's wrists above his head so he could hold his gun.

Hao didn't think. As soon as one of his hands was free he reacted. With a speed that he figured had to be a mix of adrenaline and the spirit of fire enhancing his abilities he drew the knife Yoh had given him. In a second, before the X-Law could even blink, Hao plunged the blade into his chest. It made a sickening sort of thud as it slipped in up to the hilt. Hao released the weapon, looking on in a sort of numb haze as the man's arms collapsed at his side and his face froze in a shocked expression that Hao knew he would remember until the day he died. The man collapsed to the side and Hao wriggled out from under him.

A cry of dismay went up from the other X-Law and he fled. Yoh, facing the other way at the time turned in confusion until he saw Hao.

His brown eyes widened and his mouth opened. "Hao?" he questioned.

"I'm fine," Hao said. He looked down at himself still in a daze. He felt unreal, like he should be pinching himself to make sure he was awake. But so far he was numb, numb was good. His shirt was bloody and torn, he didn't have to look in a mirror to know he looked like hell.

"Are you hurt?" Yoh said walking quickly over to him, letting go of his integration with Amidamaru as he did so, and stopping just short of touching him. It was Hao who closed the distance between them. He needed to hold on to something.

"I thought he was going to kill you," Hao whispered hugging Yoh tight. Yoh's usually tense posture relaxed a little as he hugged Hao back.

"I'm fine," he said putting a hand to Hao's hair and stroking the long tresses comfortingly.

Hao took a shuddering breath and straightened getting control of his facial expression. The shock was starting to wear off.

"Are you okay?" Yoh asked.

"I'm fine," Hao said again, "Just a few bruises."

"That's not-I meant," Yoh glanced behind Hao then quickly back at the fire shaman's face looking ill.

"Oh, that? Yeah, no big deal," Hao shrugged. Yoh let go of him completely stepping away.

"What do you mean 'no big deal?' You just killed a man!"

"Who was trying to kill you," Hao said reasonably.

"But it's still a human life!" Yoh protested.

"So is yours! Are you saying your life doesn't matter as much as his?"

"N-no, I just thought you'd feel a little guilty," Yoh amended.

"Sorry to disappoint you," Hao shrugged. He took a moment to separate himself from spirit of fire, giving Yoh a moment to think of something to say.

"How can you act like nothing happened?" his twin demanded, "You just killed a man!"

"We can't really go anywhere else with this argument," Hao stated. "As I said before, he was trying to kill you. I don't feel guilty for killing him, and you're not going to talk me into it so why don't we agree to disagree?"

"But, I, you, ugh!" Yoh stammered throwing his hands in the air. "Why do I bother? It's like you have no conscience!" He glared at Hao who just shrugged. "Fine, be that way. I can't deal with this right now; I'm going to go find a place for us to stay for the night." With that he stormed off.

Hao waited until Yoh was out of sight before he let go of his carefully blank expression. He knew he might have pushed Yoh too far and it might take the other a few days to forgive him, but at the moment it didn't matter. He had a much harder task ahead of him.

Swallowing hard, he turned to the dead body lying on its side. A pool of blood had formed under it making the ground a darker brown. Steeling himself Hao tried not to think as he moved closer to the body.

The man's face stared straight ahead as Hao approached. The numbness had gone leaving Hao with a flood of emotions he wasn't even sure how to deal with.

His hand shook with revulsion and fear as he slowly reached out. Fear? Fear of what? It wasn't like the man was going to get back up and kill him now. A small desperate smile formed on Hao's lips but he forced it down before it became an insane giggle.

Taking a deep breath and trying not to be sick he grasped the handle of the knife and with a swift motion yanked it out of the body.

Blood gushed anew from the wound since the knife no longer was there to keep it in. Hao hardly noticed, he was staring at the knife in his hand just like Yoh had examined his katana when he'd killed the woman, like it was something he'd never seen before.

Hao didn't want to think, but the thought came unbidden to him, despite his attempts to block it out. _I just killed my first person_.

Suddenly he couldn't hold it in any more. Flinging the knife away, he took a few steps to the side then fell to his knees and wretched violently. It seemed like everything he'd eaten for the past week came up, until all he could do was heave dryly. Finally he took a deep breath, getting control of himself. The effort left him feeling dizzy and he sat still for a moment, just closing his eyes and trying not to concentrate on the acrid smell of vomit.

"Are you alright?"

Hao opened his eyes at Amidamaru's voice. Slowly, he stood albeit shakily.

"Yeah," he said even as his body told him otherwise. His dizziness had turned into a headache, his back was scraped and bruised from the body slam into the X-Law, and his stomach was still roiling. And that wasn't even going into his mental health.

"It's okay, your reaction is perfectly normal," the samurai tried to reassure him. Hao only glared.

"Go to hell," he muttered. Amidamaru smiled and Hao's eyes narrowed more. "And if you tell Yoh I swear I will find a way to send you there myself."

"It's nothing to be ashamed of," the ghost tried to protest but shut his mouth, thinking it unwise to press the teen. Hao retrieved the knife and wiped it off as best he could. He put it back in its sheath then and picked up his bag from the log it'd been thrown onto. Amidamaru watched all of this silently.

"Where's Spirit of fire?" Hao asked finally standing before him. As if in answer the little spirit jumped on Hao's back, chirping in a way that was both cheerful and worried.

"Can you take care of that?" Hao requested pointing to the body. Immediately the body was enveloped in flames so hot it was cremated in a matter of seconds.

"Let's go," Hao said when there was no trace but the lingering smoke in the air.

Amidamaru and the Spirit of fire followed him as he went after Yoh. He only rarely paid attention to any physical signs of passing, relying more on his unerring sense to tell him where Yoh was. He figured it was a twin thing and stopped trying to figure it out.

He found his brother about ten minutes later, getting a fire going in by a small stream. Hao didn't have to be Yoh's twin to know Yoh was pissed at him. The easy going shaman rarely got truly angry so Hao was a little wary.

"Yoh," Hao said. The teen ignored him. "Yoh," Hao tried again. Silence. Hao took a deep breath, "I'm sorry." Yoh looked up at that. Now that he had his attention Hao pressed on. "I won't say I'm sorry for killing that man," he had to suppress a shudder at the memory, "but I'm sorry that I upset you. You're right, all life is precious." Yoh started to smile. "Including yours," Hao added. Yoh bit his lip.

"I know that in theory," he said slowly, "but I just can't seem to put it into practice. If it's between my life and someone else's…" Yoh turned his eyes away sadly. Hao closed the space between them and kneeled down to take Yoh in his arms. _I just killed a man and Yoh needs comforting?_ Hao thought fighting the urge to smile wryly. A vision of the body came to him and he shuddered this time, couldn't stop himself.

"What's wrong?" Yoh asked.

"Nothing," he said quickly. Yoh didn't press and after a few more minutes of just holding each other, they separated.

"I will never let anything happen to you," Hao promised planting a kiss on Yoh's forehead.

They finished setting up camp, the spirit of fire lit the dry logs Yoh had found. Neither one of them was hungry but Amidamaru practically forced them to have an apple they'd brought along. Meat was not even an option at this point.

They turned in early. Yoh, despite being out of sorts with him, slept beside him as usual. Body heat and whatnot. Riiight.

Hao watched the fire for a long time. The orange and yellow flames gave him a sort of comfort that diminished as the flames started to die. Yoh fell asleep but Hao remained awake. He didn't want to sleep, if he slept he might dream, and there was only one thing he knew he was going to dream about.

Eventually however, sleep claimed him, unwilling victim though he was. The day had been too stressful for any other option. And Yoh was so warm next to him…

_Hao was once again there. He killed the man again. He relived the horror of feeling his knife imbed itself in the man's chest. Of watching the life leave the man as he collapsed to the ground. But this time it was different._

"_You killed him…" Hao turned to see Yoh's accusing eyes staring back at him. This time he couldn't keep the horror of what he'd done from his face. _

"_I didn't-I just, he was…I'm sorry!"_

_Everything around Yoh faded to blackness, the shaman turned his back to Hao and seemed to disappear into it. _

"_Don't leave!" Hao cried after him. But Yoh was gone. He collapsed to the ground. "I'm sorry," he whispered. _

"_Not sorry enough!" Hao looked up in surprise and terror as the corpse of the man he'd just killed sat up. His eyes glowed red and his skin had taken on a greenish cast. Hao watched in horror as the dead man looked down at the blade still protruding from his chest. He reached out a hand and pulled it out, making a wet ripping sound as it came out. The corpse turned its hellish eyes back to Hao who was frozen. _

"_Not sorry enough!" it screeched plunging the knife into Hao's chest. _

"_I'm sorry!" Hao cried over and over again. _

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Hao moaned over and over again.

"Hao, Hao, wake up!"

"Ahhh!" Hao screamed sitting up. A hand on his shoulder startled him and he whirled to find Yoh looking at him worriedly.

"Are you alright?"

Hao nodded, not trusting his voice. He was still trembling from the nightmare and his heart beat was faster than normal.

"You're lying," Yoh said. Hao didn't argue, it was true after all. "Did you have a nightmare?" Yoh asked.

"Yeah, just a bad dream," Hao answered gaining control of himself by the second.

"About what?" Yoh asked then realization dawned on him. "It as about killing that man, wasn't it? You do feel guilty, I knew it!"

"No I don't," Hao protested but Yoh wasn't having it.

"At least on a subconscious level you do. And here I thought you were some kind of remorseless sociopath."

"Gee sorry to disappoint you," Hao muttered. Yoh hugged him.

"I'm so happy!" Hao pushed him off glaring.

"Oh go to hell already," he muttered. He flopped back down and turned his back to Yoh so he missed the smile his twin gave him, not put off in the least by Hao's mood. He lay down too on his back to look up at the stars shining though the trees.

"So does this mean you're going to avoid killing from now on?" Yoh asked.

Hao didn't even hesitate. "No."

Yoh's smile turned to a half frown but he shrugged to himself. While he did not approve at all, this was a good enough start for him. He let the matter drop for the night and closed his eyes, rolling onto his side. After a moment he felt Hao move and put an arm around his waist holding him close. The fire shaman was just a little tense and Yoh smiled softly as he drifted off. Yep, a good enough start for him.


	14. Chapter 13:The Numbers

A/N: SWEAT CHRIST this is a longer chapter than most. Dear lord...also, fair warning, there is smut. And probably swearing knowing me.

SK-LaF

Chapter 13: The Numbers

* * *

They reached the city a week later in the late evening. Yoh, having been there before, led Hao around. It came as kind of a surprise to the fire shaman that the first place they stopped was a cemetery.

"What are we doing here?" Hao asked his twin. Yoh turned to look back at him in the fading light of the evening.

"Manta has night classes, he takes the shortcut through the cemetery to get home. Sometimes he hangs out with the ghosts for awhile," he explained.

"So he's a shaman?" Yoh shook his head.

"No, just a nice guy who can see spirits."

"Oh," Hao said thinking it over. He'd been under the impression that only other shaman could see ghosts, apparently he was wrong. He was still in thought when the spirit of fire, who was perched on his back, jumped down and took off ahead of them into the graveyard.

"Spirit of fire!" Hao cried going after the spirit. What the hell was the little spirit doing? It wasn't hard following the pyro, he was a child sized mass of fire after all. The spirit made a sharp turn around a crypt so Hao lost sight of him for a moment. Hao skidded to a halt once he'd rounded the corner and stared in amazement.

There was the spirit of fire standing next to a boy who was amazingly the same height as the little spirit. The boy was petting the spirit of fire's head and telling him how cute he was. Hao wasn't sure how the boy could even see the spirit of fire, let alone touch it, he sensed no furioku from the child so he wasn't a shaman.

"Hey, Yoh!" the boy greeted smiling at the still frozen Hao. Hao blinked realizing that what he'd thought was a little kid from the height was apparently much older. Was this one of Yoh's friends? "You grew your hair out," the boy commented.

"Uh…" Hao drawled unable to form a coherent response.

The boy stopped petting the spirit of fire and looked around. "Where's Amidamaru?" he asked.

"Hao!" The fire shaman apparently awoke from his brief shock and sighed in relief at the sound of Yoh's voice. Not a moment later Yoh had come up beside Hao with the aforementioned Amidamaru and it was now little guy's turn to freeze in confusion. "There you are!" Yoh said.

"Y-Yoh?" the little boy stuttered. Yoh turned to him smiling.

"Hey Manta, long time no see, huh?"

"It is good to see you, again, friend," Amidamaru added his own greeting smiling down at the short guy. Manta managed a short wave and a smile to the samurai spirit before apparently got a hold of himself and spun back to Yoh.

"There's two of you!" he exclaimed. Yoh put a hand to the back of his head and Hao rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, about that…Manta I'd like you to meet my twin brother, Hao, Hao, this is my friend Manta." Hao nodded in greeting at the shocked midget.

"You have a twin? Why didn't you tell me before?" Manta exclaimed in a shrill voice that made Hao wince. He sure was an energetic little guy.

"I, uh, didn't know…"

"What? How can you not know you have a twin brother?"

"It's complicated…"

Manta sighed in exasperation but smiled at his friend. "I really want to hear this one," he muttered. He checked his watch then, and looked back at the two shamans.

"It looks like I've missed my bus, I don't suppose you two would like to walk with me home?"

"No problem," Yoh said. The spirit of fire chirped happily, saying something along the lines of the grass in the cemetery was friendly, and perched itself on Hao's back once more.

"So what are you in town for? Just passing through?" Manta asked.

"Actually, I need your help with something," Yoh said.

"I'll try," Manta said. "You guys can crash at my place for as long as you're in town. It's really great to have some company once in awhile."

"Thanks," Hao said before Yoh could answer. If Hao knew Yoh, which he did, he knew the shaman was not one to accept hospitality easily and Hao for one wanted to sleep on a real bed.

It only took about half an hour to walk to Manta's house. Yoh, Amidamaru, and Manta talked the whole way, catching up on everything from the last they'd seen each other. Hao was content to listen mostly, he was curious about the kind of person Yoh would choose to have for a friend since he'd only seen him interact briefly with people his own age and Ren and Horo were more Hao's friends. He found that Manta was a lot like Yoh; determined to see good in everyone and harder on himself than anyone else. He was also a brainiac if the fact that he was walking home alone from cram school this late at night was any indication.

"Here we are," Manta's voice suddenly broke into Hao's musings. "Home sweet home."

"Holy shit, this is your house?" Hao asked staring in amazement at the mansion they'd arrived before, gated drive and everything. Manta laughed good naturedly as he led them up front stairs of the wide porch lined with honest to god pillars and up to the intricately carved double doors.

"A bit ostentatious isn't it? My dad's a businessman so we're pretty well off. I have the place to myself for the next week and a half, my folks are on a trip to China and my sister's at boarding school," Manta explained. He reached his hand out to turn the door handle but before he even touched it the door swung open inwards revealing a tall butler with a hawk-like nose and severe face.

"Welcome home, Master Manta," he greeted formally. "I see you bring guests," he added with a glance at Hao and Yoh. He didn't notice Amidamaru or the spirit of fire of course.

"Hey William, these are my friends Yoh and Hao, they'll be staying with us awhile. Can you have Mary set up two guest bedrooms for them please? The ones across from my room will work." Manta requested as he led them through the door.

"Of course, sir," the butler said. He looked dubiously at Hao and Yoh. Hao didn't look away from his disapproving gaze but Yoh seemed to shrink back from it, just a little. Amidamaru glared right back at the butler which would have been more effective had the guy been able to actually see the warrior, so Hao added his own dirty look the man's way. He also put his arm around Yoh's shoulder making him flinch at first but then relaxed if only a little. Hao kept his arm where it was until the butler hustled off. They followed Manta up a spiral staircase to the second floor then on to the third.

"Yoh already knows this, but this is my room," Manta said opening the first door on the left of the long hallway. "The guest rooms are right across the hall, we'll just hang out here until Mary gets them all set up."

Yoh and Hao nodded at the exact same time, then scowled at each other when they realized what they'd just done. Manta noticed and laughed.

"I definitely want to hear the story now," said the short teen as he sat down on his bed. Hao took Yoh with him to sit on the sofa facing it. The spirit of fire had long since hopped down from his usual perch on Hao's shoulder and was curiously exploring the room. So far he hadn't burned anything but Hao was keeping an eye on him just in case. Amidamaru was hovering near Yoh's side, keeping a watchful eye as ever on the teen.

Manta listened, entranced, as Yoh filled him in their adventures, leaving out some key parts that Hao was going to inform Manta of later. Like the fact that Yoh's back still needed some medical attention. Yoh also left out the part about them each killing a member of the X-Laws, and the fact that they were a little closer than the average twin brothers. After some consideration Hao decided it was best to leave those alone.

"Wow," Manta managed when Yoh was done. "Gosh, Yoh, you lead such an exciting life! I think this is the most you've ever told me about yourself, well, ever! And you!" Hao startled when Manta turned his way. "I'm glad Yoh has you to keep an eye on him. Not that you don't do a great job, Amidamaru!" he blushed turning in apology to the samurai spirit who just laughed.

"It is alright, young friend. Not many can see spirits so it's been difficult at times to be in situations where Yoh appears to be by himself. Hao is not one to be so overlooked."

"Thanks…" Hao said not knowing if Amidamaru was giving him a complement or not. He could see why Manta was Yoh's friend, the little guy was hard not to like with his open and friendly personality. Plus it was obvious that he really cared about Yoh which automatically endeared him to Hao.

They stayed up late, Manta wanting to know all the details of Yoh's journeys up to the point when he'd met up with Hao. Hao was curious as well and listened intently as Yoh regaled them with some of the funnier tales of his exploits and travels. Yoh was just as interested it seemed in Manta's life and questioned him about school and club activities. Hao felt a pang when he saw the look of total absorption on Yoh's face as he listened to all the mundane details of Manta's hum drum life. All Yoh really wanted was normality, but since he couldn't have it all he could do was listen to Manta's.

About the third time Yoh stifled a yawn Manta showed them to their rooms. Hao had just enough energy to take off his shirt and jeans and climb into bed before he was sound asleep.

Hao woke up that night to Yoh talking in his sleep. By the sound of it he was having another nightmare. The words were unintelligible but the soft whimpers accompanied by the bed creaking at Yoh tossed and turned had Hao slipping out of bed, shivering as the cold air touched his bare skin. Silently, he went into Yoh's room through the bathroom that connected the two. As he suspected Yoh was thrashing around, the covers were a tangled mess around his knees.

"Yoh!" Hao whispered walking over to him. "Wake up! Yoh!" Yoh came awake at once, panting with sweat beading on his face. His eyes were wide and fearful until he saw Hao, then they relaxed if only slightly. Hao sat on the edge of the bed, careful not to touch Yoh until he saw some sign it would be welcome. As if reading his mind Yoh nodded, pulling his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around them. Hao leaned over to give Yoh a hug, rubbing his shoulder soothingly and whispering calming words until Yoh stopped shaking. Slowly, Hao pulled back.

"Are you alright now?" Yoh nodded. "Mind if I stay with you?" Hao asked knowing Yoh had too much pride to ask him to stay.

"No," Yoh whispered. Smiling softly, Hao crawled in next to Yoh, pulling the blankets up to rest on them both and keeping one arm around Yoh who was blushing.

"Is this okay?" Hao asked. Yoh mumbled an affirmation and Hao stroked his twin's hair until he felt Yoh relax bit by bit, then gradually fall asleep. Only then did Hao close his own eyes.

Hao woke up the next morning, aware before he even opened his eyes of Yoh's weight on him. The shorter-haired teen was fast asleep, cheek resting on Hao's chest as he lay on top of the fire shaman. Other than the fact that his legs were totally asleep, Hao had no problem with it. He lay still for the longest time, trying not to wake Yoh. Despite his best efforts, though, Yoh didn't stay asleep for long. With a yawn his twin opened his brown eyes and lazily looked at Hao. His mind caught up with him a second later and his face turned the cutest shade of red Hao had ever seen.

"Good morning sunshine," Hao smirked. Yoh scrambled off of him, rolling to the side of the bed and sitting up.

"I'm so sorry!" he stammered. Hao waved him off.

"No problem. Did you get enough sleep?"

"Yeah…thanks," he added.

"Good. Now what say we get up and see what Manta's doing? It is after eleven."

"What?"

Hao had to cover a laugh at Yoh's expression. Yoh caught him and gave him a disgruntled look before disappearing into the bathroom.

"Master Yoh does not like to feel vulnerable. He's usually a very light sleeper," Amidamaru said coming out of his memorial tablet that had been set next to the bed. "I am…glad that he feels he can relax around you." Hao looked at the samurai seriously and nodded once, knowing that it was hard on the ghost knowing someone other than him could look after Yoh. The moment was broken when the spirit of fire materialized in Hao's lap, wiggling around and chirping happily in greeting to them both. Hao just smiled and patted the spirit on its head.

A few minutes later Yoh was out of the bathroom freshly showered with just a towel around his waist. Hao made no secret of the fact that he was watching the water drip from Yoh's chest. As much as he wanted to watch the rest of the show, his leering was making his twin uncomfortable. So Hao took his own turn with a much needed shower. As much as he would have liked to stay under the hot spray, it had been weeks since he'd bathed in anything other than cold rivers and streams after all, his stomach was making it clear that he had more important things to be doing. So he took a quick shower and got dressed in the clean clothes he'd been saving at the very bottom of his pack. The rest of the clothes he added to the pile in Yoh's room. Manta had offered to have them washed which the two were grateful for. Yoh was sitting on the bed talking to Amidamaru and smiled at Hao when he dropped his clothes off. Hao returned the gesture and held out an arm.

"Shall we?"

Yoh gave a laugh which was the reaction Hao had been hoping for. He didn't actually believe it was good idea for them to flaunt their relationship, he just wanted Yoh to be a little more relaxed.

When they came out of their rooms still laughing the butler was waiting for them. He eyed them both suspiciously but refrained from saying anything offensive to their face.

"Master Manta has left for school. He will return this afternoon. I am to escort you to the dining room for breakfast and be at you service for whatever else you may need until he returns."

"Thank you," Yoh said. "Breakfast sounds great."

"Follow me," the butler bowed.

Yoh walked behind him with Hao bringing up the rear. The butler steered them down the immense staircase that led to the front entrance of the mansion. Hao got another chance to look around appreciatively at the finery that surrounded him. An honest to god chandelier hung above them, glistening in the light that shined on its crystals from the tall windows on either side of the front door. The walls were done in expensive looking intricate wallpapers and the floors were all polished to a high sheen. Hao wondered what exactly Manta's parents did for a living that allowed them to live in such luxury.

The dining room was just as elaborate, exactly like something out of Victorian England. The table was long and spread with a white table cloth. There were two places set, luckily at the same end of the table so Yoh and Hao wouldn't have to shout at each other. As soon as they took their seats they were served eggs and pancakes by a woman in a maid uniform.

"Thank you," Yoh said as she filled his glass with orange juice. Hao echoed him as she did the same. She smiled at them both and then let out a giggle.

"Something funny?" Hao asked with his best flirty smile as she immediately looked embarrassed by her outburst.

"I'm sorry," she said, "it's just…you don't sound all that alike for being twins."

At the same time they both shrugged and the maid laughed again.

"Is there anything else you'd like?" she asked when she'd regained control of herself.

"No, thank you," Hao said with a wink. With a blush she took her leave telling them she'd be back to check on them and if they needed anything to ring a bell that she left on the table. Needless to say neither one of them rang the bell and they finished breakfast soon after. Once they were done they really didn't know what to do so they headed back to their rooms.

"So," Yoh said flopping down with a sigh onto Hao's bed. Manta wouldn't be back until 3 o'clock and it was barely noon. "What do we want to do now?"

Instead of answering, Hao let his eyes linger over Yoh's form relaxing on the bed. He made his way over to Yoh who opened his eyes when the side of the bed dipped under Hao's weight. He watched warily as Hao positioned himself so he was lying alongside him.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Keeping us occupied," Hao said before leaning over Yoh and pulling him into a kiss. Yoh responded immediately, opening his mouth so that Hao's tongue was free to explore the wet cavern and coax Yoh's tongue into tangling against his. Even after weeks of make out sessions Yoh was still shy and always started out tentative in response to Hao's ministrations but Hao knew for a fact his advances weren't unwelcome from the glimpses he occasionally got into Yoh's mind.

When they finally parted they were both breathing heavily and Hao felt the telltale sign of Yoh's arousal against his thigh even through their jeans. But Hao wasn't done teasing Yoh yet. With a smirk he climbed on top of Yoh, straddling his lap and rubbing their erections together. While Yoh moaned at the delicious friction Hao made short work of the top layer of clothing separating them and when both their chests were bare leaned over Yoh to lick and suck at the sensitive skin along his jaw line and neck. He loved the way Yoh arched to give Hao more access to the area and he rewarded him by picking the spot right above his collar bone to leave a mark. He never got tired of hearing the sounds Yoh made as he sucked ever harder at his skin. When he finally detached himself with a wet pop to admire the quickly forming bruise Yoh was breathing was coming in short pants and his hands had twisted themselves into the sheets beneath him.

Hao didn't want to just stop there though, he wanted to drive Yoh out of his mind. With this end in mind, he continued trailing kisses down Yoh's neck to his chest where he playfully licked at a nipple. The answering moan from Yoh encouraged him to do that again, this time taking the tender bud into his mouth and biting gently down on it. The action made Yoh twist and turn beneath him as if he couldn't decide if he was trying to escape from Hao or get closer.

Finally, when Hao couldn't stand it anymore he slipped his hand to the front of Yoh's pants.

"H-Hao," Yoh said suddenly freezing where just a moment ago he'd been writhing.

"Shhh," Hao soothed stilling his hand. "If you want me to stop, just let me know, ok?"

He stared into Yoh's eyes, the brown color exactly the same shade as his own, until the fear finally left his face. Hao's apparent mind reading abilities were on what he considered his 'low' setting, meaning actual words weren't coming through to him from Yoh, only feelings, and right now his twin was feeling apprehensive. Stronger than that was his sense of trust in Hao, and his arousal. Still, Hao waited until Yoh nodded for him to continue.

At that point Hao made quick work of Yoh's jeans, pulling down those and his boxers far enough to expose his erection. He wrapped his hand around the length of him, marveling at the feel of the silken skin. He watched Yoh's as he gave an experimental stroke. Yoh's face was three different shades of red but at the motion of Hao's hand he threw his head back helplessly and gave a loud moan. That was all the encouragement Hao needed. He continued moving his hand over the hard flesh, watching the expressions shifting over Yoh's face to see what he liked the most.

Hearing Yoh's soft cries and watching the way his hands continued to twist into the sheets beneath him during Hao's onslaught only made the erection in his own jeans that much firmer. Wanting some relief for himself he clumsily undid his front, his member springing free with relief.

The movement caught Yoh's attention and he opened his eyes to look down the line of their bodies. Hao tensed, not knowing how Yoh was going to react.

"Can I…?" Yoh trailed off biting his lip. Hao's brain took a minute to catch up but Yoh's intentions were suddenly very clear without words. He wanted to touch Hao like he was touching him. The image alone sent a pulse straight to his groin.

"Y-yeah," he nodded trying to smile reassuringly but probably looking way more than eager at the prospect.

Yoh's first touch made the Hao's breath hitch. The sound made Yoh look fearfully at him, always ready to think he had done something wrong. Hao smiled reassuringly at him, leaning in for a kiss. "Feels good," he murmured against Yoh's lips. "Touch me more," he growled showing Yoh with his own hand what he wanted. The motion distracted Yoh for a minute, the pleasure he was feeling the only thing he could think about. It was almost overwhelming. Automatically his hand tightened around Hao's length and the moan this elicited from Hao's mouth brought him back to his senses enough that he could control his body again. It was awkward at first but soon his movements were mimicking Hao's on his own body.

The pleasure was like nothing he'd ever felt before. Hao was obviously much better at this than Yoh was, but that would come with experience Yoh told himself and pushed back the feelings in inadequacy in favor of trying to learn all he could from this. He was finding he was a very eager student. Hao was a great teacher as well, murmuring words of encouragement and praise against Yoh's skin when his mouth wasn't otherwise occupied with his own or leaving marks on his neck and chest. Despite these seemingly fierce attacks he was still managing to keep most of his weight off of Yoh, probably thinking about his back. Yoh would have told him that was unnecessary had he had enough brain cells working at the moment to think past _feels so good _and _more. _

Hao probably didn't have to be able to read his mind to pick up on his thoughts, the way he was writhing and the noises that managed to escape his mouth when it wasn't engaged in heated exchanges with Hao's was more than clue enough.

The pleasure kept building and building until Yoh thought he'd go completely crazy. His hand moved faster on the heated flesh of Hao's member in a bid to get his twin to work faster. Hao complied. He had apparently also lost the abiltiy to form words, the primal noises that were escaping instead drove Yoh that much further to the edge.

Hao's mouth was once again latched onto his, their tongues tangling, when Yoh went over the edge. He tore from Hao with a loud cry, his entire body arching as he came in spurts over his own chest and stomach. Somehow, miraculously, his hand kept moving over Hao's flesh and his twin came a minute later, adding more white liquid to the front of both of them.

Both of them spent, Hao finally collapsed managing to avoid landing entirely on Yoh, and only half draped over him. It took several minutes for them to catch their breath.

"That was-"

"-amazing."

They looked at each other with matching grins. Yoh was the first to turn on his stomach, his chin propped on his hands so he was looking down at Hao.

"So, does this mean I'm not a virgin anymore?" he asked.

"I guess that depends on your definition," Hao shrugged.

"Hmm…" Without warning Yoh leaned down and pressed his lips to Hao's. They kissed leisurely for a while, just exploring each other. When Yoh finally pulled away Hao pouted but was appeased when Yoh laid down on top of him and nuzzled his face into the juncture of Hao's shoulder.

"How long do you think before Manta gets back?" Hao asked.

"I don't know," Yoh mumbled against his skin already halfway to dozing off.

Hao tried to stay awake after that so they'd know when Yoh's friend arrived home but the warm body on top of him and the content afterglow of what they'd done was too much for him and soon he had joined Yoh in a peaceful, dreamless slumber.

* * *

"So, what was it you guys wanted my help with?" Manta asked once he'd returned home from his classes. Despite their nap, they'd woken up in plenty of time to shower and dress in the clean clothes that Mary had left out for them. They were hanging out in his bedroom, which was easily three times the size of Hao's old room and tastefully decorated with matching stained dark oak furniture; a queen sized bed, dresser, two bed side tables, four book shelves, and a computer desk atop which sat an expensive looking computer. That was where Manta was sitting in front of, his chair rotated to face Yoh and Hao who had taken up

"We were hoping you could help us make some sense of these," Yoh handed him the slip of paper with the numbers they had found inside of the locket. Manta took the slip and frowned at the numbers printed on it.

"Where did you guys find this?" the short kid asked curiously.

"You know that locket that Yoh couldn't open? Turns out I had the key the whole time. We found those in there," Hao explained.

"Locket?" Manta asked. "You never mentioned anything like that," he turned slightly hurt eyes to his friend.

"Uh, I guess it just never came up," Yoh shrugged.

"Don't worry too much about it, Manta," Hao said. "Trying to get Yoh to talk about himself is almost impossible. You almost have to be a mind reader."

Hao winked at the scowl Yoh sent his way making Manta laugh before he turned back to his computer screen.

"I'll need some time to work on this," Manta concluded after they'd been sitting in silence for a few minutes. "Why don't you guys play some video games or something? It'll be really boring for you if you just sit there and watch me."

"Alright then," Hao agreed. "Come on, Yoh, let's let Manta do his thing." He waved towards the computer screen.

Yoh looked reluctant but followed Hao anyway, saying a 'later' to Manta which was ignored by the little guy. He was already absorbed in his task.

Perfect.

As soon as they were outside the room, Yoh sighed. "So, want to train? If I don't do something to distract myself I'll probably drive you crazy," he said turning to Hao. Who was looking at him with a very predatory smirk on his face. Yoh had enough time to think _I know that look _before Hao had backed him against the wall to ravaged his mouth.

"Again?" Yoh asked between pants when Hao let him talk again.

"Are you really objecting? How often do we get to be alone? Amidamaru's gone to see a friend and the spirit of fire is somewhere doing his own thing."

_Sex fiend. _

"You know it," Hao grinned in answer to the unspoken words. "Just for you though," he winked despite the truth to his words. Even when he'd first started having sex with Horo there hadn't been this _need_ there. It was like he was a man dying of thirst and Yoh was water. He knew he'd never be able to get enough.

Yoh laughed but there was an eager flush on his face as he followed Hao across the hall and into their rooms. They locked the door behind them.

* * *

Much later, after the twins had cleaned themselves up, Manta came knocking on their door to let them know he'd found something.

"This is incredible!" Manta exclaimed.

"What?" Yoh asked. Manta waved at the computer screen.

"It's set up exactly like a government website listing every citizen's record only for shaman! I had no idea this kind of thing even existed!"

"How does it work?" Hao asked leaning forward.

"Just like every public record listing; you enter an I.D. number to find a specific person. So long as you have that you can find out anything about them. Family history, criminal records, medical history…"

"And you know all this how…?" Hao inquired quirking an eyebrow at the midget. Yoh shook his head at his twin smiling.

"Do you really want to know?" he asked.

"…Never mind."

Manta apparently hadn't heard a word of the conversation; he was too busy scrolling the website.

"About this number, Manta," Yoh said, "how many characters does it need?"

"Six."

"Have you tried entering those numbers?" he asked.

"Way ahead of you, Yoh," the excited boy replied. Typing rapidly Manta entered the first one into the database. He scanned the information that came up.

"This is your file, Yoh. 'Asakura Yoh: age fourteen, relations; Asakura Mikihisa, father, Asakura Keiko, mother, and Asakura Hao, identical twin brother. Born: May 12, 1990 at three twenty pm.'"

"So the other number must be Hao's," Yoh inferred.

"Yep," Manta confirmed after a second of swift typing. "Asakura Hao, same relations, same birthday."

"What time?" Hao asked.

"Huh?"

"What time was I born?"

"Uh…three sixteen pm. Why?" Manta asked confused.

"I just wanted to know who was older," Hao grinned. Yoh rolled his eyes.

"Figures," he muttered.

"Jealous, _little _brother?" Hao asked sweetly.

"What can you find about the X-laws?" Yoh asked ignoring his obnoxious older brother.

"Give me a minute…" They stood in silence as Manta typed. He scanned his computer screen as data went by faster than Yoh and Hao could read.

"Looks to me like they're a cult of some kind. The leader is a guy named Marco who takes orders from an 'Iron Maiden.' Hmmm, it's pretty vague on everything else though. It says they're goal is to 'rid the world of evil' whatever that means."  
"I figured that much," Yoh said dryly but instinctively Hao could sense the tension in his mind. He put his arm around Yoh making him smile. Manta, who had been looking at them out of the corner of his eye, turned to face them fully.

"Okay, now don't be offended or anything, but are you guys, uh, _together?"_ he asked delicately.

While Yoh sputtered in disbelief, Hao regarded Manta with a glare.

"And what if we are?" the fire shaman asked dangerously. Manta held up his hands in the global sign language for 'peace.'

"Hey, I've got no problems, I'm not homophobic or anything. I was just curious," he smiled and turned back to his computer screen. Yoh finally managed to shut his open jaw and Hao looked equally perplexed at Manta's back.

"You don't mind our…" Hao searched for a word, "relationship?" Manta shrugged good naturedly.

"I'm Yoh's friend, not his mother. What makes him happy, so long as it's not hurting anyone, is fine by me. You do love him, right?" the small boy asked seriously. Hao smiled and nodded.

"Besides," Manta continued, "the basic thing society frowns on about an incest relationship is the possibility that the offspring will be deformed, and since there's really no way you and Yoh could have children together, unless there's more to shaman than I've been told…"

"God, I _hope_ not," Hao shuddered. "Can you picture me or Yoh with _mood swings_?" They all laughed, though Yoh still looked a bit shell shocked.

"See then? No problem."

Hao sighed, wishing that the rest of the world could take that stance, and knowing it was impossible. It was enough for now that they had one friend who wouldn't judge them. He only hoped Horo and Ren would be so understanding when the time came to tell them.


End file.
